Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e12935 |
| Journal | Social and Personality Psychology Compass |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - 26 Feb 2024 |
Abstract
Following its outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic had strong negative effects on university students' stress and mental health worldwide. Using two longitudinal datasets from Germany (N = 504) and the U.S. (N = 893), we investigated how students' stress developed over the first two academic years during the pandemic. In both studies, we found elevated levels of students' stress at the beginning of the pandemic. In Germany, we found a significant intraindividual decrease in students' general stress experiences even before universities had returned to in-person classes. When examining specific stress facets in the U.S., we found that students' academic stress increased during the first pandemic year with remote teaching and decreased significantly after the university resumed normal operations, that is, in-person classes and on-campus residence. Students' practical stress decreased towards all later time points compared to the onset of the pandemic, whereas health stress continuously increased until the university resumed normal operations. We report differences by students' demographic backgrounds (gender, college generation status, childcare status, ethnicity, academic year) and discuss our findings against the background of the course of the pandemic in the particular context in which both studies were conducted.
Keywords
- academic year, childcare status, college generation status, COVID-19 pandemic, ethnicity, gender, higher education, stress
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychology(all)
- Social Psychology
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Social and Personality Psychology Compass, Vol. 18, No. 3, e12935, 26.02.2024.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Levels and facets of university students' stress during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Longitudinal evidence from the first two academic years in Germany and the U.S.
AU - Höhne, Elisabeth
AU - von Keyserlingk, Luise
AU - Haase, Jannika
AU - Arum, Richard
AU - Zander, Lysann
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. Social and Personality Psychology Compass published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2024/2/26
Y1 - 2024/2/26
N2 - Following its outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic had strong negative effects on university students' stress and mental health worldwide. Using two longitudinal datasets from Germany (N = 504) and the U.S. (N = 893), we investigated how students' stress developed over the first two academic years during the pandemic. In both studies, we found elevated levels of students' stress at the beginning of the pandemic. In Germany, we found a significant intraindividual decrease in students' general stress experiences even before universities had returned to in-person classes. When examining specific stress facets in the U.S., we found that students' academic stress increased during the first pandemic year with remote teaching and decreased significantly after the university resumed normal operations, that is, in-person classes and on-campus residence. Students' practical stress decreased towards all later time points compared to the onset of the pandemic, whereas health stress continuously increased until the university resumed normal operations. We report differences by students' demographic backgrounds (gender, college generation status, childcare status, ethnicity, academic year) and discuss our findings against the background of the course of the pandemic in the particular context in which both studies were conducted.
AB - Following its outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic had strong negative effects on university students' stress and mental health worldwide. Using two longitudinal datasets from Germany (N = 504) and the U.S. (N = 893), we investigated how students' stress developed over the first two academic years during the pandemic. In both studies, we found elevated levels of students' stress at the beginning of the pandemic. In Germany, we found a significant intraindividual decrease in students' general stress experiences even before universities had returned to in-person classes. When examining specific stress facets in the U.S., we found that students' academic stress increased during the first pandemic year with remote teaching and decreased significantly after the university resumed normal operations, that is, in-person classes and on-campus residence. Students' practical stress decreased towards all later time points compared to the onset of the pandemic, whereas health stress continuously increased until the university resumed normal operations. We report differences by students' demographic backgrounds (gender, college generation status, childcare status, ethnicity, academic year) and discuss our findings against the background of the course of the pandemic in the particular context in which both studies were conducted.
KW - academic year
KW - childcare status
KW - college generation status
KW - COVID-19 pandemic
KW - ethnicity
KW - gender
KW - higher education
KW - stress
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85186428885&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/spc3.12935
DO - 10.1111/spc3.12935
M3 - Article
VL - 18
JO - Social and Personality Psychology Compass
JF - Social and Personality Psychology Compass
IS - 3
M1 - e12935
ER -