Perceived social support and COVID-19 impact on quality of life in college students: an observational study

BACKGROUND: The purposes of this study were to assess the current status of perceived social support and COVID-19 impact on quality of life, to investigate the association of perceived social support with the COVID-19 impact on quality of life, and to examine differences in perceived social support between better and worse COVID-19 impact on quality of life for the total sample and by gender. METHODS: Participants included 1296 university students (399 male, 871 female, 22 transgender, non-binary, or other) with a mean age of 21.5 (SD = 2.6 years) from a large public university in the Midwest region of the US. Students voluntarily completed two questionnaires and demographic information via Qualtrics based on a cross-sectional study design. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) is a 12-item survey used to assess an individual’s perception of social support from significant others, friends, and family. The COVID-19-Impact on Quality of Life scale (COVID-19 QoL) is a 6-item scale used to assess the impact of COVID-19 on quality of life. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression, independent t-tests, and ANCOVA. RESULTS: Multiple linear regression showed that perceived social support from family was a significant predictor of COVID-19 QoL (F = 35.154, p < .01) for the total sample. Further, t-test demonstrated significant differences between males and females on perceived social support (t = −2.184, p < .05) as well as COVID-19 QoL (t = −5.542, p < .01). Results of ANCOVA demonstrated a significant group effect on perceived social support for both males (F = 10.054, p < .01, η(2) = .025) and females (F = 5.978, p < .05, η(2) = 0.007), indicating that the better quality of life group scored higher on perceived social support than low quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Social support from family may act as a key buffer for quality of life during the fall semester of 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in college students. With social interactions restricted during COVID-19, maintained access to social support is highly important. KEY MESSAGES: Social support is a crucial contributing factor to the impact of COVID-19 on quality of life, and support from social relationships may buffer these challenging and unpredictable times. The COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted the quality of life of males and females differently.