The Impact of COVID-19 on College Students’Anxiety and Health

According to the American Psychological Association (2020), mental health issues are very common amongst college students. College can be one of the most stressful periods in an individual’s life, seeing that one simultaneously starts to manage adult responsibilities and academic pressures. Unfortunately, several studies indicate that only a tiny percentage of college students seek treatment for their mental health problems. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, additional problems were laid on the currently stressed-filled lives of college students and, as a result, led to an increase in anxiety and stress levels. According to a meta-analysis by Batra et al. (2021), the pooled prevalence of anxiety of 39.4% during the COVID-19 pandemic. That is far more than the 16.7% of students’pre-pandemic prevalence (Auerbach et al., 2018). Another study found that moderate-severe anxiety symptoms increased by 40% after the pandemic started (Fruehwirth et al., 2021). This psychological distress typically exacerbates an individual’s maladaptive health behaviors and reduces perceived social support. College students are further susceptible to adopting unhealthy behaviors, especially when dealing with heightened anxiety and stress (Begdache et al., 2020). My study aims to examine the impact of physical activity, nutrition, stress, and social support on college students’ anxiety and health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data will be collected from the “Mason: Health Starts Here” longitudinal study of first-year students. The findings of this research will help us better understand how COVID-19 affects well-being factors such as physical and mental health.

Hi everyone, my name is Erika McMillan, and I am a senior here at George Mason University. I am a clinical psychology major with a minor nutrition and the title of this video is called “The Impact of COVID-19 on College Students’Anxiety and Health.” This project aims to improve our understanding of COVID-19’s effect on college well-being. Starting with COVID-19, it is a severe acute respiratory syndrome that primarily attacks the lungs and immune system and can progress into serious complications and hospitalizations, especially if one has a chronic disease. COVID-19 complications include influenza, pneumonia, septic shock, and other illnesses. It was declared a public health emergency in 2019 when it was thought to have originated in Wuhan, China. Currently, over 100 million people had confirmed cases and around 2 million people died from the virus which can be scary. Especially to those with chronic illnesses since they are more susceptible to developing a serious case that could require hospitalization. To slow down the spread, governments implemented social distancing, quarantines, and lockdowns. These public health emergencies can affect not only physical health but also mental health due to the barriers and stressors it produces. Anxiety is the feelings of fear and worry and refers to anticipation of future threats. Symptoms typically consist of restlessness, increased heart rate, irritability, muscle tension, chest tightness, disturbed sleep, and avoidance behaviors. When experiencing prolonged anxiety it can develop into an anxiety disorder that affects daily functioning, like schoolwork, relationships, job performance, and health behaviors. According to the American Psychological Association, 41.6% of college students reported anxiety as a main concern. Yet several studies show that there is a low percentage of students seeking treatment. Due to COVID-19, anxiety was exacerbated in college students. One study conducted on 419 first-year students enrolled in a large American university found that moderate-severe anxiety symptoms increased by 40% after the pandemic started. Another study reported 71% of students had increases in anxiety and stress with only 5% of them utilized mental health treatment. This prior research shows that college students are further susceptible to adopting a sedentary lifestyle. Health involves many things and, in my study, I will be looking physical activity, nutrition, stress, social support, and self-rated health. These health behaviors are known to have significant health benefits like reducing the risk of obesity and chronic illnesses. Previous research shows that 87% of college students didn’t engage in WHO recommendations of at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity per week. COVID-19 was shown to further decrease physical activity engagement by 32%. In nutrition, the 18-29 age range has the greatest increase in the overweight and obesity category with 78.4% of young adults not meeting the WHO nutrition recommendations. A study done during COVID-19 revealed that 55.1% of university students did not have a balanced meal and COVID-19 increased it to 65.5%. Stress is natural and can be beneficial to a degree. However, prolonged stress can trigger mental and physical symptoms similar to anxiety which can make a person more susceptible to developing anxiety disorders and introduce chronic illnesses. A meta-analysis reported that stress in college students increased from 13.4% to 26.0% during COVID. Then there’s social support which is known to positively impact people as it provide emotional assistance. Students who experience higher levels of social support are more likely to alleviate any COVID related negative effects such as self-isolation and social distancing since isolation can worsen anxiety and risky behaviors. Lastly is self-rated health which is one of the common measures of health. Previous research found strong correlations with morbidity since it’s a strong predictor of health behaviors and identifies individuals at risk for illnesses in the future. So, the higher the SRH score, the lower the probability of disease onset. In my methods, Participants have to be first-year GMU students. I will be looking at two cohorts of freshmen separated by academic year. The first cohort has 349 first-year students enrolled in Fall 2019 to Fall 2020. The second cohort has 187 first-year students enrolled in Fall 2020 to Fall 2021. The participants received incentives for each completed survey. Physical activity is being measured with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form. It is a seven-item measurement that asks open-ended questions about the respondent’s last seven-day recall of physical exercise. Nutrition is measured using the Diet History Questionnaire-III. It’s a 161-item questionnaire that asks about food intake. Stress is measured with the Perceived Stress Scale. Social support is measured with the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Anxiety will be measured with the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System. It is an 8 item self-report questionnaire that evaluates anxious mood in the past 7 days. Higher scores signify more severe anxiety symptoms. Finally, Health is assessed by the one item measure. Self-rated health where it uses one question to measure general health. Responses range from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Hypothesis 1 is Students’nutrient and fiber consumption, physical activity, and perceived support will be negatively related to their anxiety, and positively related to their self-rated health. Hypothesis 2 is Students’perceived stress, sugar consumption, and amount of sitting will be positively related to their anxiety, and negatively related to their self-rated health. Hypothesis 3 is Students’nutrient, fiber, and sugar consumption, physical activity and sitting behavior, and perceived support will account for unique variance in their anxiety symptoms and self-rated health cross-sectionally, and longitudinally (after controlling for time 1 levels), and controlling for demographic variables such as gender, parents’education, and hours of employment. Hypothesis 4 is First-year students in Cohort 2 will have more perceived stress, poorer nutrition, engage in less physical activity, have lower perceived support, and more anxiety than Cohort 1 participants. Thank you all for listening and make sure if you have any questions or comments to leave them below.