The Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on European students' negative emotional symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Open accessAbstract
Considerable changes to higher education approaches, as a response to the global coronavirus pandemic, has increased the stress on university students. The impact of these changes has had an effect on the negative emotional symptoms being experienced, which can lead to more severe mental health issues. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the prevalence of anxiety, depression and stress during the coronavirus lockdown. A systematic review of three electronic databases (Google Scholar, PubMed and Medline) was conducted, with 13 studies from different European countries reporting data on students and their negative emotional symptoms identified. The random-effects model was used to perform the meta-analysis on anxiety, depression and stress. The overall pooled prevalence rate was 55% (95% CI: 45-64%) for anxiety, 63% (95% CI: 52-73%) for depression and 62% (95% CI: 43-79%) for stress. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on negative emotional symptoms has been serious with studies reporting high prevalence rates for these. Isolation, reduced social contact, duration of quarantine and restrictions, which are the characteristics of a lockdown, played an important role in increased negative emotional symptoms for students. Countries have to be aware of this situation and develop mental support strategies to mitigate the impact.
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College students experienced particular challenges in terms of disruption to their social and academic lives, with negative consequences for their mental health.
“Recent systematic reviews and metanalyses (Buizza et al., 2022; Carvalho et al., 2022; Elharake et al., 2023; Luo et al., 2021) point out that college students experienced particular challenges in terms of disruption to their social and academic lives, with negative consequences for their mental health”
From Social connections combat loneliness and promote wellbeing among college students coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic (2025) · cites this paper as Carvalho et al., 2022
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Influence of CO₂ and Particulate Matter (PM) on Students’ Emotions in a Smart ClassroomPreprint
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- Authors
- Oliveira Carvalho, P., Hülsdünker, T., & Carson, F.
- Affiliations
- Department of Sport and Exercise Science, LUNEX International University of Health, Exercise and Sports, L-4671 Differdange, Luxembourg
- LUNEX (LU)
- Corresponding author
- Carson, Fraser
- Venue
- Behavioral Sciences
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-12-23
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3
- ISSN
- 2076-328X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8772797
- OpenAlex
- W4200267401
- Cited by
- 66
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 7
- FWCI
- 1.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Behavioral Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- 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
- COVID-19 lockdown, university students, anxiety, depression, stress, mental health, social isolation, quarantine, mental health support
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