Longitudinal Trajectories of Study Characteristics and Mental Health Before and During the COVID-19 Lockdown.

Journal: Frontiers in psychology

Volume: 12

Issue: 

Year of Publication: 

Affiliated Institutions:  Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Eindhoven, Eindhoven, Netherlands. Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa. Department of Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Abstract summary 

The has significantly disrupted the higher education environment within the Netherlands and led to changes in available study-related resources and study demands of students. These changes in and , the uncertainty and confusion about educational activities, the developing fear and anxiety about the disease, and the implementation of the COVID-19 lockdown measures may have a significant impact on the of students. As such, this study aimed to investigate the trajectory patterns, rate of change, and longitudinal associations between study resources-demands and mental health of 141 university students from the Netherlands before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. The present study employed a longitudinal design and a piecewise latent growth modeling strategy to investigate the changes in study resources and mental health over a 3 month period. The results showed that moderate levels of student resources significantly decreased before, followed by a substantial rate of increase during, lockdown. In contrast, study demands and mental health were reported to be moderate and stable throughout the study. Finally, the growth trajectories of study resources-demands and mental health were only associated before the lockdown procedures were implemented. Despite growing concerns relating to the negative psychological impact of COVID-19 on students, our study shows that the mental health during the initial COVID-19 lockdown remained relatively unchanged.

Authors & Co-authors:  van Zyl Llewellyn E LE Rothmann Sebastiaan S Zondervan-Zwijnenburg Maria A J MAJ

Study Outcome 

Source Link: Visit source

Statistics
Citations :  Abbey J. D., Meloy M. G. (2017). Attention by design: using attention checks to detect inattentive respondents and improve data quality. J. Oper. Manag. 53 63–70. 10.1016/j.jom.2017.06.001
Authors :  3
Identifiers
Doi : 633533
SSN : 1664-1078
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Other Terms
COVID-19;coronavirus;mental health;piecewise latent growth modeling;study resources;university students
Study Design
Longitudinal Study,Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Country of Study
Publication Country
Switzerland