College student mental health: Understanding changes in psychological symptoms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
Open accessAbstract
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.
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Evidence indicates that U.S. college students experienced increases in depressive and anxiety symptoms and stress during the Spring and Fall 2020 semesters.
“There is evidence that college students in the U.S. experienced increases in depressive and anxiety symptoms and stress during the Spring and Fall 2020 semesters (Charles et al., 2021; Roche et al., 2022).”
From Using network analysis to examine connections between Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) processes, internalizing symptoms, and well-being in a sample of undergraduates (2023) · cites this paper as Roche et al., 2022
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- Authors
- Roche, A. I., Holdefer, P. J., & Thomas, E. B. K.
- Affiliations
- University of Iowa (US)
- Corresponding author
- Thomas, Emily B. K.
- Venue
- Current Psychology
- Published
- 2022-05-23
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 14
- Pages
- 13041-13050
- ISSN
- 1046-1310 (ISSN-L)
- 1936-4733
- PMC
- PMC9124747
- OpenAlex
- W4281287628
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 8.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM108540)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Social Sciences › Education › Education during COVID-19 pandemic
- Keywords
- college student mental health, COVID-19 pandemic, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, first-year students, higher education disruption
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