Locus of control and pre-pandemic depressive symptoms relate to psychological adjustment of college students to the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective: The current study examines the relationships between change in depressive symptoms and locus of control orientations among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants: A sample of 341 undergraduate students were recruited from a large Midwestern United States university.Methods: Participants completed an online cross-sectional survey with self-report measures of current depressive symptoms, retrospective pre-pandemic depressive symptoms, and locus of control.Results: Depressive symptoms changed significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic (t(340) = 7.49, p < 0.01). Pre-pandemic depressive symptoms predicted symptom change with the greatest changes among students who had fewer pre-pandemic symptoms (b = −0.58, p < 0.01) and higher external locus of control orientation (b = 0.24, p < 0.01).Conclusions: An increased presence of mental health resources is needed on college campuses and external locus of control should be targeted through clinical intervention as a risk factor for adverse depressive responses to stressors among college students.

Keywords:

• College students
• COVID-19 pandemic
• depression
• locus of control

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. The American Psychological Association’s guidelines were followed regarding the ethical treatment of research participants. The authors obtained approval from the IRB at the University of Cincinnati for the research reported in this manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, C.O.S., upon request.

Additional information

Funding

The project described was supported by funding from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under Award Number 2UL1TR001425-05A1. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.