scholarly journals Real-time Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on College Students: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan M Kleiman ◽  
April L Yeager ◽  
Jeremy L Grove ◽  
John K Kellerman ◽  
Joanne S Kim

BACKGROUND College students’ mental health may be disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because of the abrupt shift off campus and subsequent loss of a social network and potential long-term impact on job prospects. OBJECTIVE We sought to assess the nature of COVID-19’s mental health impact among a sample of undergraduates who were experiencing the pandemic as it occurred in real time. METHODS In total, 140 college students completed smartphone-based ecological momentary assessments of anxiety and optimism related to COVID-19 and other generic mental health variables 6 times daily. RESULTS Participants completed >23,750 surveys. Overall, >75% of these surveys indicated at least some level of anxiety about COVID-19. On average, the proportion of responses each day at the highest levels of anxiety about COVID-19 was 7 times greater than the proportion of responses at the highest levels of non–COVID-19–specific anxiety. Structural change analyses indicated a significant downward trend in COVID-19 anxiety after the first week of June, but even at the lowest point, >15% of the participants in the sample still reported high levels of COVID-19 anxiety each day. Participants felt more anxious about COVID-19 on days when the number of new cases and deaths due to COVID-19 were higher. When participants felt anxious about COVID-19, they also felt sad, anxious (in general), and had a greater desire to drink and use drugs. Participants felt more optimistic about COVID-19 when they received more support from others and from their university. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated the widespread mental health impact that COVID-19 has had on college students.

10.2196/24815 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. e24815
Author(s):  
Evan M Kleiman ◽  
April L Yeager ◽  
Jeremy L Grove ◽  
John K Kellerman ◽  
Joanne S Kim

Background College students’ mental health may be disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because of the abrupt shift off campus and subsequent loss of a social network and potential long-term impact on job prospects. Objective We sought to assess the nature of COVID-19’s mental health impact among a sample of undergraduates who were experiencing the pandemic as it occurred in real time. Methods In total, 140 college students completed smartphone-based ecological momentary assessments of anxiety and optimism related to COVID-19 and other generic mental health variables 6 times daily. Results Participants completed >23,750 surveys. Overall, >75% of these surveys indicated at least some level of anxiety about COVID-19. On average, the proportion of responses each day at the highest levels of anxiety about COVID-19 was 7 times greater than the proportion of responses at the highest levels of non–COVID-19–specific anxiety. Structural change analyses indicated a significant downward trend in COVID-19 anxiety after the first week of June, but even at the lowest point, >15% of the participants in the sample still reported high levels of COVID-19 anxiety each day. Participants felt more anxious about COVID-19 on days when the number of new cases and deaths due to COVID-19 were higher. When participants felt anxious about COVID-19, they also felt sad, anxious (in general), and had a greater desire to drink and use drugs. Participants felt more optimistic about COVID-19 when they received more support from others and from their university. Conclusions This study demonstrated the widespread mental health impact that COVID-19 has had on college students.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony D Mancini

In this commentary, I argue that the mental health impact of COVID-19 will show substantial variation across individuals, contexts, and time. Further, one key contributor to this variation will be the proximal and long-term impact of COVID-19 on the social environment. In addition to the mental health costs of the pandemic, it is likely that a subset of people will experience improved social and mental health functioning.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeska Stonawski ◽  
Ariawan Purbojo ◽  
Robert Cesnjevar ◽  
Gunther Moll ◽  
Oiver Kratz ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Tetsuya Akaishi ◽  
Tomomi Suzuki ◽  
Harumi Nemoto ◽  
Yusuke Utsumi ◽  
Moe Seto ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: This study aims to evaluate the long-term impact of living in post-disaster prefabricated temporary housing on social interaction activities and mental health status. Methods: A total of 917 adult residents in a coastal town, whose residences were destroyed by the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), were enrolled for the assessment held five years after the disaster. They answered questions about their experience and consequence of living in prefabricated temporary housing after the disaster. Their present scores on five types of self-reported measures regarding the psychosocial or psychiatric status and their present and recalled social interaction activities were cross-sectionally collected. Results: A total of 587 (64.0%) participants had a history of living in prefabricated temporary housing, while the other 330 (36.0%) had not. The prevalence of social interaction activities significantly decreased after the GEJE. However, the experience of living in prefabricated temporary housing did not adversely affect the subsequent social interaction activities or mental conditions of the participants five years after the disaster. Conclusions: Living in post-disaster prefabricated temporary housing may not negatively impact subsequent psychosocial conditions or social interaction activities five years later.


Author(s):  
Asaf Benjamin ◽  
Yael Kuperman ◽  
Noa Eren ◽  
Ron Rotkopf ◽  
Maya Amitai ◽  
...  

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic poses multiple psychologically stressful challenges and is associated with an increased risk for mental illness. Previous studies have focused on the psychopathological symptoms associated with the outbreak peak. Here, we examined the behavioural and mental-health impact of the pandemic in Israel using an online survey, during the six weeks encompassing the end of the first outbreak and the beginning of the second. We used clinically validated instruments to assess anxiety- and depression-related emotional distress, symptoms, and coping strategies, as well as questions designed to specifically assess COVID-19-related concerns. Higher emotional burden was associated with being female, younger, unemployed, living in high socioeconomic status localities, having prior medical conditions, encountering more people, and experiencing physiological symptoms. Our findings highlight the environmental context and its importance in understanding individual ability to cope with the long-term stressful challenges of the pandemic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 402-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruixue Zhaoyang ◽  
Stacey B Scott ◽  
Joshua M Smyth ◽  
Jee-Eun Kang ◽  
Martin J Sliwinski

Abstract Background Individuals’ emotional responses to stressors in everyday life are associated with long-term physical and mental health. Among many possible risk factors, the stressor-related emotional responses may play an important role in future development of depressive symptoms. Purpose The current study examined how individuals’ positive and negative emotional responses to everyday stressors predicted their subsequent changes in depressive symptoms over 18 months. Methods Using an ecological momentary assessment approach, participants (n = 176) reported stressor exposure, positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA) five times a day for 1 week (n = 5,483 observations) and provided longitudinal reports of depressive symptoms over the subsequent 18 months. A multivariate multilevel latent growth curve model was used to directly link the fluctuations in emotions in response to momentary stressors in everyday life with the long-term trajectory of depressive symptoms. Results Adults who demonstrated a greater difference in stressor-related PA (i.e., relatively lower PA on stressor vs. nonstressor moments) reported larger increases in depressive symptoms over 18 months. Those with greater NA responses to everyday stressors (i.e., relatively higher NA on stressor vs. nonstressor moments), however, did not exhibit differential long-term changes in depressive symptoms. Conclusions Adults showed a pattern consistent with both PA and NA responses to stressors in everyday life, but only the stressor-related changes in PA (but not in NA) predicted the growth of depressive symptoms over time. These findings highlight the important—but often overlooked—role of positive emotional responses to everyday stressors in long-term mental health.


1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penelope K. Trickett ◽  
Frank W. Putnam

In the last decade, it has become clear that the sexual abuse of children is much more prevalent than previously realized and that such abuse has extensive mental health sequelae. Females are reported victims of sexual abuse much more often than males. The peak age of onset of sexual abuse for females is prepubertal—7 or 8 years of age—and the average duration fends to be about 2 years. The basic theme of this article is that there may be directly traceable mechanistic relationships between the impact of sexual abuse on specific psychological and biological developmental processes for females and some of the adult outcomes of that abuse. Specifically, it is proposed that, to understand the long-term impact of sexual abuse, it is necessary to investigate how it may interfere with both the psychological and the biological processes of pubertal development.


2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Wolfe ◽  
Karen J. Francis ◽  
Anna-Lee Straatman

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