Human Development & Family Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States of America.
Department of Psychology, Augustana College, United States of America.
J Affect Disord. 2024 Apr 15;351:551-559. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.199. Epub 2024 Jan 26.
College students' mental health has been a vital concern for researchers, policymakers, administrators, and educators since before the pandemic, and it is crucial to identify the extent to which the pandemic affected college students' mental health.
The current study utilized data repeatedly collected over more than four years (2017-2022) from N = 355 students enrolled at a large public research university in the Midwestern US. The data collection period coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic's onset, facilitating systematic examination of whether and how college students' trajectories (i.e., level and slopes) of depressive symptoms, social anxiety, general disinhibition, callous aggression, and problematic alcohol use changed as the pandemic progressed. Across seven waves, surveys assessed multiple outcome and predictor domains. Multilevel growth curve modeling was used to analyze all outcomes.
Depression symptoms peaked mid-pandemic, whereas social anxiety first declined then continued rising. General disinhibition and callous aggression showed non-significant changes in trajectories. Problematic alcohol use decreased continuously with no significant pandemic-associated effects in the best-fitting model.
An important limitation is reliance on a sample from a single campus utilizing self-reported, non-clinical assessments. Another important limitation is the lack of location information from participants during the acute COVID-19 phase.
Reported longitudinal analyses expand upon findings from previous limited repeated-measures and cross-sectional studies. In terms of clinical significance, some of the most harmful COVID-19 effects to mental health may be long-lasting and cumulative, making them difficult to detect in shorter-term or cross-sectional studies. Altogether, findings demonstrate complex changes in students' mental health that may have ongoing effects on well-being during key developmental stages.
早在疫情之前，大学生的心理健康就一直是研究人员、政策制定者、管理者和教育工作者关注的焦点，因此，确定疫情对大学生心理健康的影响程度至关重要。
本研究利用了 2017 年至 2022 年期间，在美国中西部一所大型公立研究型大学就读的 355 名学生重复收集的超过四年的数据。数据收集期间恰逢 COVID-19 大流行的开始，这为系统地检查大学生的抑郁症状、社交焦虑、一般抑制、无情攻击和问题性饮酒的轨迹（即水平和斜率）是否以及如何随着疫情的发展而变化提供了便利。在七个波次中，调查评估了多个结果和预测领域。使用多层次增长曲线模型分析了所有结果。
抑郁症状在疫情中期达到高峰，而社交焦虑则先下降后继续上升。一般抑制和无情攻击的轨迹没有明显变化。在最佳拟合模型中，问题性饮酒呈持续下降趋势，与疫情无显著关联。
一个重要的局限性是依赖于一个单一校园的样本，使用自我报告的、非临床评估。另一个重要的局限性是在 COVID-19 急性阶段缺乏参与者的位置信息。
报告的纵向分析扩展了以前有限的重复测量和横断面研究的发现。就临床意义而言，对心理健康最有害的 COVID-19 影响可能是持久和累积的，这使得它们在短期或横断面研究中难以检测到。总之，研究结果表明，学生心理健康的复杂变化可能会对关键发展阶段的幸福感产生持续影响。
