The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has resulted in a litany of long-standing consequences for the United States in its entirety, to the detriment of nearly every aspect of society. As the fight for control over the disease appears surmountable by the end of 2021, the mental health of the nation’s population is trapped under the inertia of necessary personal isolation for the sake of the greater good. The psychological effects of quarantine, isolation, distance-based education, etc., will have a profound and detrimental impact on the development and maintenance of students’ psychological health. This study compares 3 separate samples of college students from 3 time periods oriented around the pandemic’s advent and development, and investigates the effects rendered on symptoms of mood disorders, perceived stress, and alcohol use rates. The 3 cohorts used in the study were drawn from September through November of 2019 (N=254), April through May of 2020 (N=164), and October through November of 2020 (N=352), all composed of volunteer students from a medium-sized southeastern university in the United States (Overall: 84% female, 62.1% white, mean age of 21.16 years old). These population samples were gathered independently and are not longitudinal with respect to the individual participants. All participants completed a questionnaire concerning health risk behaviors via a Qualtrics survey with proper verification and eligibility measures in place. Specifically, the questionnaire contained material regarding knowledge of the pandemic (n/a to 2019 cohort), psychiatric symptom reporting (via DSM-5 Self-Rated Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptoms Measure- Adult), perceived stress (via Perceived Stress Scale), and alcohol use (via Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test). Demographic data was also recorded. The data was analyzed using nonparametric correlation testing and General Linear Models. Results of the study found students to be overall “well-informed” concerning the COVID19 pandemic but decreasing in their approval of societal restriction measures from the spring semester to the fall semester, perhaps indicating the presence “pandemic fatigue”. Furthermore, the Spring 2020 cohort saw the highest rates of mood disorder symptomatology, perceived stress, and alcohol use rates. Counterintuitively, the Fall 2020 cohort exhibited scores for all measures more consistent with that of the pre-pandemic cohort. Demographically, white students reported higher levels of psychiatric symptoms, stress, and alcohol use than African American students.
Takeaway: the author’s note the possibility of resiliency with regards to college students’ mental health by comparing the survey scores for the Spring and Fall pandemic semesters, but also mention that the measures in place may not be adequate to fully capture the psychological impact the pandemic is having on this specific population’s health. They also address the demographic differences may be attributed to African Americans having greater coping mechanisms due to previous experience with societal factors like racial discrimination, healthcare access disparities, and institutionalized poverty.