Coping with COVID-19: a snapshot of college student mental health, coping, and expectancies during stay-at-home orders

Abstract

Objective

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people’s lives around the world, including college students. This cross-sectional study aimed to 1) describe psychological distress, coping, and expectancies of undergraduates during COVID-19 “stay-at-home” orders and 2) examine the associations among these variables.

Participants and methods

Midwestern US undergraduates (N = 186) completed measures of psychological distress, coping behaviors, and expectancies in March–April 2020 during the initial round of “stay-at-home” orders.

Results

Students engaged in approach coping and disease prevention behaviors and had low expectations for contracting COVID-19. Most students reported clinically significant depression or anxiety. Adherence to disease prevention behaviors was associated with less stress but more anxiety. Positive expectancies and approach coping were associated with less distress. Avoidance coping was associated with more distress.

Conclusions

This study describes the toll that COVID-19 has had on college students. Continued attention to the mental health of college students during the pandemic is imperative.

Keywords:

• anxiety
• coping
• COVID-19
• depression
• hope

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Indiana University- Purdue University Indianapolis.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.

Notes

1 At the time we created this assessment, the CDC was not recommending that individuals wear face masks. Thus, we did not assess for use of face masks.