Lanza Stephanie T, Whetzel Courtney, Bhandari Sandesh
Department of Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.
The Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.
Interact J Med Res. 2024 Aug 23;13:e45689. doi: 10.2196/45689.
There is evidence that anxiety and stress increased among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, less is known about daily experiences of affect, worry, substance use behaviors, experiences of pleasure, concern over food security, experiences of bias or discrimination, feelings of belongingness, and other indicators of well-being and how they vary across days in this population.
This study surveyed a wide range of indicators of health and well-being in daily life over 21 days with a sample of college students in a large university system in the United States during the pandemic. The overall variance in each daily measure was partitioned to reflect the proportion due to (1) between-person differences versus (2) within-person, day-to-day variability. This is important because measures that vary primarily due to between-person differences may be more amenable to interventions that target particular students, whereas measures that vary more due to day-to-day variability may be more amenable to interventions that target day-level contextual factors.
A sample of 2068 young adult college students (aged 18-24, mean 19.8, SD 1.3 years; 66.6% women) completed a baseline survey; 97.3% (n=2012) then completed up to 21 consecutive daily surveys that assessed a comprehensive set of daily markers of health, behavior, and well-being. The daily diary study produced a total of 33,722 person-days.
Among all person-days, a minority were substance use days (eg, 14.5% of days involved alcohol use, 5.6% vaping, and 5.5% cannabis). Experiences of pleasure were reported on most (73.5%) days. Between-person differences explained more than 50% of the variance in numerous indicators of health and well-being, including daily vaping, cannabis use, other illicit substance use, experiences of bias or discrimination, positive affect, negative affect, worry, food insecurity, and feelings of belonging at the university. In contrast, within-person differences explained more than 50% of the variance in daily alcohol use, cigarette use, stress, experiences of pleasure, where the student slept last night, and physical activity.
College student health and well-being are multifaceted, with some aspects likely driven by person-level characteristics and experiences and other aspects by more dynamic, contextual risk factors that occur in daily life. These findings implicate services and interventions that should target individual students versus those that should target days on which students are at high risk for poor experiences or behaviors.
有证据表明，在新冠疫情期间大学生的焦虑和压力有所增加。然而，对于情绪、担忧、物质使用行为、愉悦体验、对食品安全的担忧、偏见或歧视经历、归属感以及其他幸福指标的日常体验，以及这些体验在该人群中随时间的变化情况，我们了解得较少。
本研究在疫情期间，对美国一个大型大学系统中的大学生样本进行了为期21天的调查，涵盖了日常生活中广泛的健康和幸福指标。对每个日常测量指标的总体方差进行了划分，以反映由于（1）个体间差异与（2）个体内每日变化所导致的比例。这一点很重要，因为主要因个体间差异而变化的指标可能更适合针对特定学生的干预措施，而因每日变化而变化更大的指标可能更适合针对每日情境因素的干预措施。
2068名年轻成年大学生（年龄18 - 24岁，平均19.8岁，标准差1.3岁；66.6%为女性）参与了基线调查；其中97.3%（n = 2012）随后连续完成了多达21天的每日调查，评估了一系列全面的健康、行为和幸福的日常指标。这项每日日记研究共产生了33722人日的数据。
在所有的人日中，少数是物质使用日（例如，14.5%的日子涉及饮酒，5.6%涉及吸电子烟，5.5%涉及使用大麻）。大多数日子（73.5%）都有愉悦体验的报告。个体间差异解释了众多健康和幸福指标中方差的50%以上，包括每日吸电子烟、使用大麻、其他非法物质使用、偏见或歧视经历、积极情绪、消极情绪、担忧、粮食不安全以及在大学的归属感。相比之下，个体内差异解释了每日饮酒、吸烟、压力、愉悦体验、学生昨晚的睡眠地点以及体育活动中方差的50%以上。
大学生的健康和幸福是多方面的，有些方面可能由个体层面的特征和经历驱动，而其他方面则由日常生活中更动态的情境风险因素驱动。这些发现意味着服务和干预措施应针对个体学生，还是针对学生经历不良或行为风险较高的日子。
