Investigating how students’ learning environment, social and physical well-being influence their resilience and feelings of depression and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands

Figures & data

Table 1. Socio-demographics and further study- and COVID-19-related information of the sample.

		N	Percentage
Gender	Female	2,090	69.5
	Male	885	29.4
	Other	32	1.1
International	Dutch citizen	2,011	66.9
	International	996	33.1
Relationship status	Single	1,597	53.1
	In an LD relationship	151	5.0
	In an NLD relationship	1,102	36.6
First-year student	Yes	655	21.8
	No	2,352	78.2
Underlying conditions	Yes	349	11.8
	No	2,619	88.2
COVID-19 symptoms during the past month	Yes	1,303	46.6
	No	1,493	53.4
Prior COVID-19 infection	Yes	327	10.9
	No	2,679	89.1

Note. We define an LD relationship herein as one in which the respondent had not seen their partner for a month or more. This distinction was done retrospectively based on participants’ responses to how long they have not seen their partner.

Figure 1. The timeline of the study, including the period of data collection and the relevant events surrounding the pandemic. Note. All societal events and pandemic developments pertain to the Netherlands, and all university events pertain to the university in question. Sources: containmentnu.nl, coronavirus.nl, nos.nl, rijksoverheid.nl, rivm.nl, who.int.

Table 2. Summary of the multiple regressions with depression, loneliness, and resilience as the outcome variable, respectively, and social as well as physical well-being indicators as predictors.

	Depression			Loneliness			Resilience
	B	SE B	β	B	SE B	β	B	SE B	β
Social resources	−.01	.02	−.01	−.11	.03	−.07**	.023	.02	.02
Social activities	−.01	.01	−.01	.09	.01	.01	.03	.01	.06**
Sharing concerns	−.32	.03	−.17**	−.60	.05	−.21**	.25	.05	.10**
Drug consumption	.04	.01	.06**	.05	.02	.05*	.07	.02	.07**
Increase drug consumption	.01	.02	.01	−.11	.03	−.07**	−.11	.03	−.08**
Exercise habits	−.07	.01	−.15**	.04	.02	.05	.09	.02	.14**
Increase exercise habits	−.02	.01	−.05*	−.06	.02	−.08**	−.04	.01	−.07**
Physical activities	−.01	.01	−.01	−.02	.02	−.02	−.01	.02	−.01
Adjusted R²	.08			.06			.04
F	31.5			23.1			13.6

Note. *p < .05, **p < .01; B = unstandardized coefficient beta; SE B = standard error of B; β = standardized coefficients beta.

Table 3. Means (M) and standard deviation (SD) of university students’ psychological, social, and physical well-being.

	M	SD	Scale
Psychological well-being
Depression	2.3	0.5	1 (‘none or almost none of the time’) – 4 (‘all or almost all of the time’)
Loneliness	2.4	0.9	1 (‘none or almost none of the time’) – 4 (‘all or almost all of the time’)
Resilience	3.0	0.7	1 (‘strongly disagree’) – 5 (‘strongly agree’)
Social well-being
Social resources	1.9	0.6	1 (less) – 3 (more)
Social activities	3.2	1.5	0–6 (see in-text description)
Sharing concerns	1.9	0.3	1 (yes); 2 (no)
Physical well-being
Drug consumption	1.5	0.8	1 (‘(almost) never’) – 5 (‘(almost) daily’)
Increase in drug consumption	−0.2	0.5	Index: Current consumption – consumption prior to COVID-19
Exercising habits	3.1	1.1	1 (‘(almost) never’) – 5 (‘(almost) daily’)
Increase in exercising habits	−0.6	1.3	Index: Current habits – habits prior to COVID-19
Physical activities	0.9	0.9	0–3 (see in-text description)

Figure 2. Standardized means of the psychological well-being measures distributed according to group affiliation based on social (a) and physical (b) group differences. Note. LD = long-distance; NLD = non-long-distance.

Table 4. Pearson correlations between psychological well-being and learning environment characteristics

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1 Depression	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2 Loneliness	.43**	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
3 Resilience	−.21**	−.20**	1	–	–	–	–	–
4 ERT	−.34**	−.21**	.45**	1	–	–	–	–
5 Students’ engagement	−.08**	−.01	.03	.11**	1	–	–	–
6 Teachers’ role	−.12**	−.10**	.10**	.33**	.20**	1	–	–
7 Social integration	−.01	.02	.09**	.12**	.22**	.18**	1	–
8 Academic integration	−.05**	−.07**	.05**	.08**	.11**	.21**	.22**	1

Note. *p < .05, **p < .01; ERT = emergency remote teaching.

Table 5. Summary of the multiple regressions with depression, loneliness, and resilience as the outcome variable, respectively, and students’ perception of their learning environment as predictor.

	Depression			Loneliness			Resilience
	B	SE B	β	B	SE B	β	B	SE B	β
ERT	−.28	.02	−.33**	−.27	.03	−.20**	.54	.02	.46**
Students’ engagement	−.03	.01	−.05**	.02	.02	.02	−.01	.01	−.01
Teachers’ role	−.01	.01	−.01	−.04	.02	−.04	−.06	.02	−.06**
Social integration	.03	.01	.04*	.06	.02	.06**	.04	.02	.04*
Academic integration	−.02	.01	−.03	−.05	.02	−.06**	.02	.01	.03
Adjusted R²	.12			.05			.20
F	75.0			31.2			143.5

Note. *p < .05, **p < .01; B = unstandardized coefficient beta; SE B = standard error of B; β = standardized coefficients beta.