Coronavirus Impact
Several recent studies show pandemic-related increases in mental health issues among college students and young adults. According to a new CDC report, young adults in the US are experiencing elevated anxiety and depression and an alarming rise in suicidal ideation related to the coronavirus pandemic. Among young adults ages 18 to 24, nearly 63 percent had symptoms of anxiety or depression that they attributed to the pandemic and nearly a quarter had started or increased their abuse of substances, including alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs, to cope with their emotions. Roughly 25% percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 say they’ve considered suicide because of the pandemic.
Another recent study released by the Student Experience in the Research University Consortium showed pandemic-driven increases in depression and anxiety among college students, with more than a third reporting significant mental health challenges. The survey of students at nine U.S. public research universities nationwide found that 35% of undergraduates and 32% of graduate and professional students screened positive for major depressive disorder, while 39% of all students screened positive for anxiety disorder. The number of students who screened positive for anxiety disorder in the new study was up by 50% compared to one in 2019. The rate of anxiety and depression was higher among low-income students, students of color, LGBTQ+ students and those who are caring for loved ones.
Using smartphone data and online surveys from more than 200 students, researchers at Dartmouth College found that depression and anxiety may have escalated among college students during the initial outbreak of COVID-19. Student’s self-reported anxiety and depression spiked in early March, lessening slightly later in the semester but remaining consistently higher than in previous years. “We found that when social distancing was recommended by local governments, students were more sedentary and visited fewer locations on any given day,” study author Jeremy Huckins said. “Clearly, the impact of COVID-19 extends beyond the virus and its direct impacts. An unresolved question is if mental health and physical activity will continue to degrade over time, or if we will see a recovery, and how long that recovery will take.”
USA Today reports on the millions of students across the country facing financial strains and health fears as they make a decision on returning to campus this fall. The article cited a new report from Student Loan Hero which shows that just over a third of college students will return to campus and attend class in-person this fall if given the option. Another 16% still plan to return to campus, but will take courses online, while roughly 29% plan to study online from home.
As colleges brace for increased demand for mental health services this fall, from added stressors of financial hardship and social isolation, Forbes notes that students will likely be directed off-campus for care or to the campus website for mobile apps to help support their mental health. A recent study found that many of the apps that colleges suggest on their websites are outdated or unavailable, or are not private or evidence-based. The study, published in the journal Psychiatric Services by Jennifer Melcher and Dr. John Torous from the Division of Digital Psychiatry at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School, looked at 60 schools’ counseling center websites for any reference to apps as resources for students. According to their results, 43% of the schools included app suggestions on their website. However, 60 of the apps were discontinued and only 44% had been updated in the past 6 months. Additionally, 39% had no privacy policy. Actual peer-reviewed efficacy studies had been published for only 16% of the listed apps.
In Gallup, Tom Matson, a Senior Executive Leadership Strategist for Gallup Education and former NCAA tennis champion and coach, and Luke Hansen, a Senior Consultant with Gallup Education, explain how coaches can drive student athlete wellbeing amid the COVID-19 disruptions. Matson and Hansen write that student-athletes are struggling amid the pandemic and require supportive environments to thrive, citing a statistic that one-third of student-athletes are struggling with anxiety and sadness, while one in 12 report feeling so depressed that it has been difficult to function “constantly” or “most every day.” Over half (56%) report communicating with their coaches multiple times a week, and 82% report feeling positive or very positive about the support they are receiving from their coaches. Matson and Hansen offer advice to coaches, urging them to guide student-athletes to the vital mental health resources on campus and staying connected with them through the process.
University of North Carolina students have created a one-on-one virtual peer support program. Peer2Peer, which started as a COVID-19 student hub in the beginning of the pandemic, now gives students the opportunity to talk to a peer responder as many times as they would like at no cost.
An entire first-year residence hall at Colorado College is under quarantine after a student tested positive for COVID-19.
The Chronicle interviewed more than 50 people on the University of Kentucky’s campus about returning to college amid a pandemic and the push and pull between normalcy and risk. Some students expressed concern, but many are excited as they start the year. Some have resigned themselves to inevitably getting the virus; others are being extra cautious. The first weekend at school was marked by numerous off-campus student gatherings that were noticed by the administration. By Monday morning, campus leaders were urging students to comply with COVID precautions, telling them that keeping the campus open until Thanksgiving depends on their compliance.
The Chronicle highlights students’ uneasiness about their peers’ behavior as they consider returning to campus. One student, Annie Xu, decided against attending the University of Washington in person as Covid-19 cases grew across the country and she watched other young people ignore social-distancing guidelines. “I don’t know if I can trust the majority of students to be safe,” she said, explaining that she’d seen “a lot of people on social media” sharing photos of themselves at parties or other high-risk activities. Ariyah Armstrong, a University of Arizona student, opted to take classes online rather than moving to Tucson. She said she’d seen future students making plans on social media to attend parties and joking about not wearing masks. “There will be parties, people will be gathering,” Armstrong said. “There will be people taking it seriously, but there will be other people who will ruin it for everyone else.” Jean Chin, chair of the American College Health Association’s Covid-19 task force said that while the risk would be low if “all parties are doing everything perfectly” – wearing masks while on and off campus, practicing social-distancing; and avoiding large gatherings – she thinks that is unlikely. Chin said she “wants to believe” students will follow safety protocols, but also wants to be “realistic.”`
Two weeks after moving students into the dorms for an in-person fall, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced that it’s moving mostly online for the rest of the semester, encouraging students who can to return home. The announcement comes after 135 students and staff tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Washington Post reports that big parties and crowded bars in college towns from Georgia to Alabama to Oklahmoa are alarming administrators and local officials, many of whom reacted in horror this week, warning the fall semester could come to a swift end.
Inside Higher Ed reports on the hundreds of colleges that have reversed or altered their reopening plans in the past several weeks amid the worsening crisis. Many planning to bring students back to campus have reversed course entirely and opted for online-only. Smith College and Mount Holyoke College announced within days of each other that they would not bring students back to campus this fall. Some schools, like Brown University and the University of Maryland, are choosing to delay the start of the semester.
The Chronicle is covering clusters, outbreaks and changing reopening plans in their live updates page.
In an op-ed in the New York Times, Karen Levy, an assistant professor in the department of information science at Cornell University and Lauren Kilgour, a doctoral candidate at Cornell, put a spotlight on colleges and universities asking students to not only wear masks and avoid parties, but also to report on peers who break the rules. New York University, Tulane and University of Nebraska at Omaha are among the higher ed institutions asking students to report fellow students to higher ups or hold friends accountable to social distancing rules. Levy and Kilgour implore colleges not to use peer reporting systems, warning that this approach may not be effective in controlling the spread of Covid-19 because it puts students in difficult positions. Asking students to police their peers can disrupt the interpersonal dynamics of student life, and creates conditions to displace blame onto students should outbreaks occur. “Universities need to be mindful of how peer surveillance systems might be misused, how they might burden different groups of students and the damage they may do to community trust,” they write.
Notre Dame University is reporting a dramatic spike in Covid-19 cases among students and staff members, most of which local health department officials have traced to an off-campus party that hundreds of people had attended. In Forbes, Stephen M. Gavazzi writes that young adult behavior will continue to disrupt the social experiment of bringing students back to campus during the pandemic. He cites adolescent and young adult behavior expert Lawrence Steinberg of Temple University, who stated that attempts to control the behavior of college students are fantasies that “border on the delusional.” Dr. Steinberg predicted “that the college and university reopening strategies under consideration will work for a few weeks before their effectiveness fizzles out.”
Some colleges and universities are adding coronavirus fees as a way for students to share the costs of testing and reconfiguring campus facilities. The University of Michigan is one example where students will be charged a $50-per-term coronavirus fee this year. Revenue from the fee will help cover the costs of testing and other pandemic-related health and safety services, a spokesman said. Merrimack College, a private institution in North Andover, Mass., is charging a “Covid mitigation” fee of $475 per semester to all students taking in-person classes.
