1

Effects of COVID-19 on College Students' Mental Health

Luisedmundo J. Vicente

CSU Channel Islands

HLTH-499: Senior Capstone Project

Dr. Winans

May 14, 2021

 2

Effects of COVID-19 on College Students' Mental Health

With the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, the US was advised to use the following

control measures, such as limiting social gatherings, wearing a facemask, staying 6 ft apart,

frequent hand washing, etc. The primary purpose of implementing and following such prevention

measures in the US was to limit transmissions of COVID-19 and reduce overflow in healthcare

facilities. However, mostly all schools, including higher education, within the US were mandated

to transition into a virtual learning environment. As higher education and college students begin

to adjust to their new virtual environment, the potential question to be considered is if the effects

of COVID-19 had any significant impact on a college student's mental health?

Many college students are advised to keep caution of their mental health as they may face

potential risk during their time in college. The reason for the risk is because college students may

experience an increased risk of depression, anxiety overwhelmed from assignments, and

financial struggle to afford higher education, etc. Although efforts have been made to reduce the

posing risk in college student’s mental health, it has continued to be persistent throughout the

years. If college students experience an increased risk to their mental health while in a virtual

environment, then researchers must consider implementing interventions and prevention

strategies. However, if college students experience a decreased risk to their mental health, then

an evaluation must be made to understand how a virtual environment bested an in-person

environment. It would be beneficial to know if college students transitioning to a virtual

environment greatly increases or decreases the risk to their mental health. Overall, the following

articles will represent the effects of COVID-19 on students' mental health.

 3

The first three articles primarily focus on the college students' mental health at risk due to

the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the other remaining two articles focus on the risk of mental

health in college students and consumption of alcohol due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beginning with the article taken place on Sep 3, 2020, researchers conducted a study on college

students from the university system in Texas. Researchers surveyed students on their feeling of

increase, decrease, or about the same in stress levels during the pandemic (Son et al., 2020).

Researchers then concluded that a majority of students felt an increased risk to their mental

health due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “138 (71%) students responded that their stress and

anxiety had increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 39 (20%) indicated it remained the same,

and 18 (9%) mentioned that the stress and anxiety had decreased.” (Son et al.,2020).

Furthermore, on Sep 17, 2020, a similar study was done using the university system in

Texas. Researchers surveyed 2,031 students with questions about the severity of depression and

anxiety disorders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 related stress, and coping

mechanisms and barriers (Wang et al., 2020). “1607 (80.57%) participants reported some level of

depression, 1445 (71.75%) showed anxiety; and 1443 (71.26%) reported that their stress/anxiety

levels had increased during the pandemic, while 111 (5.48%) indicated it had decreased, and 471

(23.26%) indicated it remained the same as before.”(Wang et al., 2020). Overall, both articles

following the same university in Texas have similar results of having increased risk to college

students' mental health because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the third article that takes place on Sep 30, further analysis on the impacts of

COVID-19 in students' mental health was taken in undergraduate students of the University of

New Jersey. New Jersey was considered to be one of the states that were most impacted by
 4

COVID-19, with 111,188 confirmed cases and 6,044 deaths (Kecojevic et al., 2020). As New

Jersey was a hot spot for COVID-19, researchers can evaluate if it would have a severe impact

on college students' mental health. 162 students completed a survey asking questions about

academic difficulties as a result of the pandemic and the mental health burden that students felt

over the concern about the pandemic (Kecojevic et al., 2020). Researchers found that there was

an increased risk to college students’ mental health following academic difficulties. 58.6% of

students had difficulty with online learning, 73.5% had trouble focusing on academic work in a

virtual environment, 66.7% expressed concern about the COVID-19 epidemic, which was

associated with mental health burdens (Kecojevic et al., 2020).

Aside from the main focus on mental health alone in college students, the remaining two

articles will address the use of alcohol consumption to cope with stressors to mental health. In a

study in Nov 2020, researchers noted that with the closing of schools, students will be more

prone to use alcohol to deal with psychological stress. Alcohol is no way a coping mechanism, if

college students need to cope with psychological stressors then there are social support services

offered by the campuses. However, as the US was advised to halt all or any social gatherings,

this would also apply to social support services on campus. Nonetheless, researchers found that

there was a link between an increase in psychological distress and alcohol consumption due to

the effects of campus closure from the pandemic. During the initial weeks of campus closure

from the pandemic in Northeast Ohio, students reported an increase in physiological distress in

two weeks and consumed a total of 63 drinks within the first week and 98 drinks within the

second week (Lechner et al.,2020). Furthermore, researchers noted that if students were to gain

some type of social support during campus closure, then psychological distress and alcohol
 5

consumption will be reduced (Lechner et al.,2020). Overall, the study concluded that there was

an increase in psychological distress in college students but only during the first two weeks of

campus closure.

Following the previous article, a similar article in Feb 2021, focused on psychological

distress and an increase in alcohol consumption. Researchers studied the impacts of COVID-19

in college students attending the same university located in the southeastern US. Data consisted

of 254 students for the fall 2019 semester, 168 students for the spring 2020 semester, and 352

students for the fall 2020 semester in the same university located in southeastern US (Charles et

al. 2021). The researcher’s method to collect data allows for the opportunity to evaluate trends of

increase or decrease of mental health issues in college students. Results from the study indicated

that a majority of college students experience an increased risk to their mental health and alcohol

consumption during the semester following the beginning of virtual learning, while mental health

issues were more prevalent in women and Non-Hispanic Whites. Evaluation of all three

semesters demonstrated that at the beginning of the pandemic (spring semester 2020), college

students experience increased risk to their mental health and alcohol consumption than the fall

2019 and fall 2020 semester, especially in women and Non-Hispanic White (Charles et al.,

2021).

After receiving all 5 articles that address the issues of effects of COVID-19 on the mental

health of college students, it seems that all articles share a similarity. All articles make it present

that COVID-19 has impacted college students' ability to not only have an increased risk to their

mental health, but also a risk to their academic success and inappropriate uses of consuming

alcohol to bear the problems. Furthermore, two out of the five articles identify that at the
 6

beginning occurrence of campus closures, there have been linked to increased risk in the mental

health of college students. However, only one out of the five articles noted that there was a

difference between the beginning of virtual learning and the past virtual learning by evaluating

different semesters and one that specified that if social support is implemented, it could decline

risk to college student’s mental health. It seems that risk to students' mental health begins to

increase during the beginning of their virtual learning, yet further research is needed that

evaluates trends of increase or decrease risk in mental health in college students between

semesters. Overall, it is clear that due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, there have been significant

impacts on college student’s mental health and require prevention and intervention strategies.
 7

References

Charles, N. E., Strong, S. J., Burns, L. C., Bullerjahn, M. R., & Serafine, K. M. (2021). Increased

mood disorder symptoms, perceived stress, and alcohol use among college students

during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychiatry research, 296, 113706.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7781902/

Kecojevic, A., Basch, C. H., Sullivan, M., & Davi, N. K. (2020). The impact of the COVID-19

epidemic on mental health of undergraduate students in New Jersey, cross-sectional

study. PloS one, 15(9), e0239696.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7526896/

Lechner, W. V., Laurene, K. R., Patel, S., Anderson, M., Grega, C., & Kenne, D. R. (2020).

Changes in alcohol use as a function of psychological distress and social support

following COVID-19 related university closings. Addictive behaviors, 110, 106527.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7319610/

Son, C., Hegde, S., Smith, A., Wang, X., & Sasangohar, F. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on

college students' mental health in the United States: Interview survey study. Journal of

medical Internet research, 22(9), e21279. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32805704/

Wang, X., Hegde, S., Son, C., Keller, B., Smith, A., & Sasangohar, F. (2020). Investigating

mental health of US college students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Cross-sectional

survey study. Journal of medical Internet research, 22(9), e22817.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32897868/