Exploring the experiences of college students in Chinese campus lockdown policy during the COVID-19 outbreak: A qualitative study

Campus lockdown policy is one of the most effective non-pharmaceutical intervention strategies used to prevent and control the coronavirus disease 2019epidemic worldwide. College students were greatly affected by this policy. Related studies center on English-speaking countries; few have highlighted discussion of the Chinese context. This study, therefore, aimed to broadly elicit the real experiences and unique insights of college students on Chinese campus lockdown policy. Through qualitative research, we identified four key themes with ten contributory subthemes: physiological experiences, safety experiences, love and belonging experiences, and self-esteem experiences. The unique contribution of this study relates to experiences relating to love and belonging and to self-esteem, which are little discussed in the existing literature. Our findings can provide enlightenment on how to improve college students’ health.