Cargando…

College student mental health: Understanding changes in psychological symptoms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way higher education is structured and delivered, presenting challenges for college students that have the potential to negatively impact mental health. The current study aimed to identify potential changes in college student psychological symptoms since the ons...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Roche, Anne I., Holdefer, Paul J., Thomas, Emily B. K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9124747/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35645550
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03193-w
_version_ 1784711790943272960
author Roche, Anne I.
Holdefer, Paul J.
Thomas, Emily B. K.
author_facet Roche, Anne I.
Holdefer, Paul J.
Thomas, Emily B. K.
author_sort Roche, Anne I.
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way higher education is structured and delivered, presenting challenges for college students that have the potential to negatively impact mental health. The current study aimed to identify potential changes in college student psychological symptoms since the onset of the pandemic. The study used analyses of covariance to examine differences in perceived stress, depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms between a sample of university students collected in Fall 2016 and a sample of students from the same university collected in Spring 2020 and Fall 2020 after the onset of the pandemic. Findings indicated that college students from the 2020 sample reported significantly higher levels of stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms than the 2016 sample. For stress and anxiety, there was a significant interaction between cohort (2016 vs. 2020 sample) and year in school (first year vs. advanced) indicating that the pandemic may have had a more prominent negative mental health impact on advanced students in comparison to first year students. There were no significant differences between samples on obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The current sample was somewhat homogenous demographically, consisting of primarily first-year students, thus limiting generalizability. Self-report measures were used. College students may be struggling with increased stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms during the pandemic. The current study provides important information to guide the development and implementation of prevention and intervention efforts to support college student mental health in the context of the pandemic.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9124747
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Springer US
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-91247472022-05-23 College student mental health: Understanding changes in psychological symptoms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States Roche, Anne I. Holdefer, Paul J. Thomas, Emily B. K. Curr Psychol Article The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way higher education is structured and delivered, presenting challenges for college students that have the potential to negatively impact mental health. The current study aimed to identify potential changes in college student psychological symptoms since the onset of the pandemic. The study used analyses of covariance to examine differences in perceived stress, depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms between a sample of university students collected in Fall 2016 and a sample of students from the same university collected in Spring 2020 and Fall 2020 after the onset of the pandemic. Findings indicated that college students from the 2020 sample reported significantly higher levels of stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms than the 2016 sample. For stress and anxiety, there was a significant interaction between cohort (2016 vs. 2020 sample) and year in school (first year vs. advanced) indicating that the pandemic may have had a more prominent negative mental health impact on advanced students in comparison to first year students. There were no significant differences between samples on obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The current sample was somewhat homogenous demographically, consisting of primarily first-year students, thus limiting generalizability. Self-report measures were used. College students may be struggling with increased stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms during the pandemic. The current study provides important information to guide the development and implementation of prevention and intervention efforts to support college student mental health in the context of the pandemic. Springer US 2022-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9124747/ /pubmed/35645550 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03193-w Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Article
Roche, Anne I.
Holdefer, Paul J.
Thomas, Emily B. K.
College student mental health: Understanding changes in psychological symptoms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
title College student mental health: Understanding changes in psychological symptoms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
title_full College student mental health: Understanding changes in psychological symptoms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
title_fullStr College student mental health: Understanding changes in psychological symptoms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
title_full_unstemmed College student mental health: Understanding changes in psychological symptoms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
title_short College student mental health: Understanding changes in psychological symptoms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
title_sort college student mental health: understanding changes in psychological symptoms in the context of the covid-19 pandemic in the united states
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9124747/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35645550
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03193-w
work_keys_str_mv AT rocheannei collegestudentmentalhealthunderstandingchangesinpsychologicalsymptomsinthecontextofthecovid19pandemicintheunitedstates
AT holdeferpaulj collegestudentmentalhealthunderstandingchangesinpsychologicalsymptomsinthecontextofthecovid19pandemicintheunitedstates
AT thomasemilybk collegestudentmentalhealthunderstandingchangesinpsychologicalsymptomsinthecontextofthecovid19pandemicintheunitedstates