The Impact of COVID-19 On The Lives of Students

Mental health

The impact of COVID-19 on the lives of students and suggested coping strategies

Published in UBSS Scholarship Series

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The Impact of COVID-19 On The Social, Physical, Occupational, Intellectual, Emotional, And Spiritual Lives of Students and Suggested Coping Strategies

31.5.22 | Education

Published by Valeriya Sytnik (UBSS Centre for Scholarship and Research)

Issue 3 | Article 7

ABSTRACT

This article reviews some of the most prominent academic research and meta-analysis papers published in 2020-2022 that studied the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of college students. It uses The Six Dimensions of Wellness diagram developed by Dr Bill Hettler in 1976 to provide structure for the material reviewed and the subsequent discussion. Accordingly, the article focuses on how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted six aspects of students’ lives: social, physical, occupational, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual; and how these disruptions impacted the mental health of students. It also discusses the strategies offered by leading experts in the field of psychology that students can use in each of these six aspects to address the negative impact of the pandemic-related disruptions on their psychological well-being.

INTRODUCTION

Commencing January 2020, governments in most countries implemented unprecedented social distancing measures such as lockdowns, quarantines, travel restrictions, and widespread closures of schools and universities in order to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. (Götmann, et al., 2021; Elharake, et al., 2022). Necessary as they were to ensure people’s physical survival and safety (Ebrahim, et al., 2020), these strict measures also had a profound negative impact on people’s mental health (Elharake, et al., 2022; Sameer, et al., 2020; Brooks, et al., 2020). Some researchers have compared this impact to that of major traumatic events such as wars (Bridgland, et al., 2020; Romano, et al., 2021) and threats of terrorist attacks (Shelef, et al., 2022). It is well documented that mental health declines during a crisis (Romano, et al., 2021; Geier, Morris, 2022). Indeed, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the global prevalence of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression increased by 25% in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (WHO, 2022).

College and university students have been particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its related restrictions on their freedom. Since students are especially vulnerable to psychological disorders due to biological, developmental, and lifestyle changes associated with the transition to adulthood (Shiratori, et al., 2022; Prowse, et al., 2021; Orben, Tomova, Blakemore, 2020), they were more susceptible to negative mental health influences from the pandemic than any other age group (Lei, et al., 2020; Wang, et al., 2020; Solomou, Constantinidou, 2020; Pieh, Budimir, Probst, 2020; Naser, et al., 2020).

A plethora of studies from around the globe reported an unparalleled increase in negative mental health conditions among college students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The condition of anxiety was found in 20-28% of students surveyed in Malaysia (Sundarasen, et al., 2020), Spain (Odriozola-González, et al., 2020), China (Cao, et al., 2020; Li, et al., 2020), and France (Paucsik, et al., 2022; Wathelet, Duhem, Vaiva, 2020); in 39-49% of students observed in Spain (Marques, et al., 2020), and Turkey (Cam, Ustuner Top, Kuzlu Ayyildiz, 2022); and in 74-88% of students examined in the USA (Son, et al., 2020), Romania (Silișteanu, et al., 2022) and Bangladesh (Islam, et al., 2020). The more severe condition of depression was identified among students surveyed in Greece (13% - Patsali, et al., 2020), France (16% - Wathelet, Duhem, Vaiva, 2020), Spain (34% - Marques, et al., 2020), the USA (48% -Wang, et al., 2020), Turkey (65% - Cam, Ustuner Top, Kuzlu Ayyildiz, 2022), and Bangladesh (82% - Islam, et al., 2020). Other symptoms of mental health disorder were detected in 17% of students surveyed in China (Li, et al., 2020), 31% of students covered in Switzerland (Shanahan, et al., 2022), and 50% of students examined in Rwanda (Obaje, et al., 2021).

This article looks at how the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the mental health of students in six aspects of their life – social, physical, intellectual, occupational, emotional, and spiritual - and discusses some strategies students can implement to prevent or minimize these impacts.

SOCIAL ASPECT: IMPACT

School closures
UNESCO estimated that, by May 2020, more than 80% of students in 138 countries had been affected by the closures of education institutions (Elharake, et al., 2022). The loss of freedom to meet friends, teachers, and family members resulted in loneliness, which was identified as the strongest pandemic-related contributor to anxiety and depression in students (Werner, et al., 2021). Among nine countries studied, school closure was found to be the only type of lockdown measure that was positively correlated with Google searches of the term “Depression”. (De la Rosa et al, 2022). Since social interaction is a basic human need (Seffrin, et al., 2022), it is not surprising that 60% of students surveyed in Jordan (Almomani, et al., 2021) and 43% of those examined in the UAE (Drissi, et al., 2020) experienced anxiety during the COVID-19 lockdowns. In one British study, the prevalence of students classified as clinically depressed rose from 14% prior to the lockdown to 34% during the lockdown (Evans, et al., 2021).

Lockdown conditions
Both the duration of lockdowns and the nature of the living conditions during them influence the mental health of students. Lockdowns of indefinite duration are more harmful to the psychological well-being of students than are those with a specified lockdown period (López Steinmetz, et al., 2021). Two studies with samples of 4018 students in France (Baumann, et al., 2021) and 8177 students in Italy (Amerio, et al., 2020) found that such factors as living accommodation of less than 60 square metres, limited views, poor indoor air quality (Amerio, et al., 2020), noise inside and outside the home, and no access to a garden, terrace, or balcony (Baumann, et al., 2021) increased the likelihood of depression by 1.3-2.2 times (Amerio, et al., 2020). In line with these findings, a study in France found that 50% of students who relocated to more rural areas prior to the lockdowns experienced stress compared to 71% of students who were in the same residence prior to and during the lockdowns (Husky, et al., 2020).

SOCIAL ASPECT: STRATEGIES

Built Environment Variables and Urban Green Space
An Indian study proposed “Built Environment Variables” (BEV) as “psychologically restorative solutions” to poor lockdown conditions. The study found that, in confined places, each additional unit of such items as indoor plants, portraits, and artworks as well as quality window views overlooking greenery and sky reduced the probability of depression in students from 1.3 to 0.7 (Asim, Chani, Shree, 2021).

A study in Germany recommended using Urban Green Space (UGS) such as parks, lakes, and rivers to interact with friends. As a safe replacement for indoor socializing venues, UGS provides students with a sense of connection to others and relief from stress of social distancing, as well as physical relaxation and mental recharge (Collins, Haase, Heiland, Kabisch, 2022). A study across 48 countries demonstrated that the tighter the social-gathering restrictions the more frequently people went to parks, suggesting a need to re-assess the value and importance of natural green areas in reducing depression, frustration, and the sense of isolation (Geng, et al., 2021).

Distance education
Since academic satisfaction is considered to have a much stronger effect on students’ mental health than COVID-19 related stress (Tran, et al., 2022), it was crucial to keep the learning processes for students as normal as possible during the pandemic. In order to provide a stable educational framework for students following the onset of the pandemic, more than 90% of countries adopted remote learning practices (UNICEF, 2020; The World Bank, 2020).

According to several studies, 67-80% of students regarded distance education as a better substitute for in-person classes than either suspension of classes or reducing learning to the reading of materials and the undertaking of assignments (Muthuprasad, et al., 2021; Chakraborty, et al., 2020). The adoption of online learning in Brazil during the pandemic is credited with reducing depression among students from 60% to 43% (Seffrin, et al., 2022).

PHYSICAL ASPECT: IMPACT

Physical activity and sleep
Distance learning softened the negative impact of COVID-19 on students’ social life but aggravated the effect on their physical life. Removing the need to get up early for in-person classes and reducing opportunities to spend time outside their confined spaces created sleep disturbances (Shiratori, et al., 2022; Reuter, Forster, Kruger, 2021; Kaparounaki, et al., 2020; Jahramiab, et al., 2022), decreased physical activity, and increased sedentary behaviour among students (Reuter, Forster, Kruger, 2021; Savage, et al., 2020; Stockwell, et al., 2020).

A systematic review of 250 studies comprising half a million people from 49 countries estimated the prevalence among university students worldwide of such sleep disturbances as poor sleep quality and insomnia to be 41% during the pandemic (Jahramiab, et al., 2022). Another review of 66 studies comprising of 87,000 people reported that during the pandemic more than 50% of children and adolescents decreased their physical activity by an average of 28 minutes per week (Stockwell, et al., 2020; Savage, et al., 2020) and increased their sedentary behavior by an average of 23 hours per week (Jahramiab, et al., 2022; Savage, et al., 2020). While both decreased physical activity and increased sedentary behaviour have been found to correlate negatively with the mental health of students (Shiratori, et al., 2022; Reuter, Forster, Kruger, 2021; Kaparounaki, et al., 2020; Jahramiab, et al., 2022; Savage, et al., 2020; Stockwell, et al., 2020; Alyoubi, et al., 2021; Prowse, et al., 2021), the sleep disturbances variable was identified as having the largest negative effect among eight items linked to depression in a study of almost all students at a university in Japan (Shiratori, et al., 2022).

Substance-use disorder and suicides
The other two variables associated with pandemic-related anxiety and depression in students are substance-use disorder and suicidal thoughts. Substance-use disorder (SUD) refers to a person’s inability to control their use of substances such as drugs, alcohol, or medications, resulting in adverse effects on their brain and behaviour. Symptoms can range from moderate to severe, with addiction being the most severe form of SUDs. College students are a particularly vulnerable population group, with one in three students having a substance use disorder even before the pandemic (Prowse, et al., 2021). Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among people aged 15-25 years in France (Wathelet, et al., 2020). During the pandemic, students were identified as the group most likely to start or increase the use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs (Prowse, et al., 2021; Voltmer, et al., 2021; Martinez-Cao, et al., 2021; Kleiman, et al., 2020). There was also a threefold increase in suicides among students in Bangladesh (Daria, et al., 2022) and an increase in suicidal thoughts among students of 15-35% in the USA (Kleiman, et al., 2020), 63% in Greece (Kaparounaki, et al., 2020), and 70% in France (Wathelet, et al., 2020).

PHYSICAL ASPECT: STRATEGIES

Exercising
The best strategy for reducing substance use and suicidal thoughts as well as for decreasing sleep disturbances and sedentary behavior and increasing physical activity is exercising (Voltmer, et al., 2021; Precht, et al., 2022; Kappel, et al., 2021; Brailovskaia, et al., 2020; Brand, Timme, Nosrat, 2020; Coyle, Ghazi, Georgiou, 2021; Baumann, et al., 2021). Cost-effective and low-threshold physical activities such as walking, jogging, cycling, hiking, yoga, tai chi, and hula hooping (Precht, et al., 2022; Kappel, et al., 2021), have been found to enhance the sense of self-efficacy, reduce negative thinking, improve the quality of sleep, boost resilience, and lessen anxiety and depression among students (Precht, et al., 2022; Brailovskaia, et al., 2020). Higher mood scores associated with exercising almost every day during the pandemic were reported by nearly 14,000 participants in 18 countries (Brand, Timme, Nosrat, 2020) as well as by 80% of students in large-study samples of 2075 in the UK and 4018 in France (Coyle, Ghazi, Georgiou, 2021, Baumann, et al., 2021).

House-related physical activity
To commence or keep up the habit of exercising despite restricted access to gyms, sport clubs, and studios, students can change either their exercising settings or their practices. Some physical activities can be maintained in local parks, tracks, and trails (Espiner, et al., 2022) or adapted to home environments with the help of physical activity apps and online, video-fitness classes (Stockwell, et al., 2021). Other physical activities such as swimming, contact sports, and team sports can be replaced by either individual sports or creative challenges closer to home (Espiner, et al., 2022). For example, gardening as well as chores, like washing, cleaning, and clearing piled-up work were used by 23% students surveyed across 16 countries and were reported to have improved mental health (Sameer, Khan, Banday, 2020; Stockwell, et al., 2021).

OCCUPATIONAL ASPECT: IMPACT

Parents’ financial instability
The pandemic and its associated social and travel restrictions led not only to the worldwide closure of schools and universities but also to the shutdown of many businesses and workplaces. More than 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits (Lee, et al., 2020) and 83% of surveyed undergraduate students in China reported an increased financial burden on their families by April 2020 (Sun, et al., 2021). Pandemic-related family financial instability was found to be positively correlated with anxiety, stress, and depression in both parents and their children (De la Rosa, et al., 2022; Sun, et al., 2021; Huarcaya-Victoria, et al., 2021; Alam, et al., 2022). Families belonging to under-privileged social groups, with low socioeconomic status, with low incomes, and with parents who lost their jobs as well as their incomes during the pandemic faced the highest risk of experiencing mental health problems (Lee, et al., 2020; Elharake, et al., 2022; Chesterman, et al., 2021; Kalil, Mayer, Shah, 2020).

Students’ financial worries
During the pandemic, rising unemployment rates made it challenging for many families to meet their basic needs, let alone cover their children’s education costs (Alam, et al., 2022). With college tuition fees and accommodation expenses being unchanged despite the perceived reduced value of distance learning, a striking 30% of 3013 students surveyed at Queen’s University and 15% of 339 students surveyed at Oxford University expressed concerns about having sufficient financial resources to continue their studies (Appleby, et al., 2021). The fear of delayed or impaired education and the lack of family financial stability were linked to depression in 74% and to anxiety in 57% of 1238 students in a Peruvian study (Huarcaya-Victoria, et al., 2021).

While first-year students are most anxious about having enough money to continue their education, older students are more worried about the uncertainty of their employment prospects after graduation (Alam, et al., 2022, Appleby, et al., 2021; Silișteanu, et al., 2022). During the pandemic, younger students lost seasonal or part-time jobs that normally would have supported them during their studies (Elharake, et al., 2022, Appleby, et al., 2021). Older students suffered from severely reduced exchange programs, internships, research projects, practical work, and other academic opportunities that would make them better prepared and more competitive when applying for jobs (Appleby, et al., 2021; Werner, et al., 2021). With 26-48% of students losing their jobs due to the pandemic (Government of Canada, 2022b; Government of Canada, 2021; N26, 2021), it is not surprising that almost 80% of surveyed students at Queen’s and 50% of those surveyed at Oxford expressed anxiety about their career prospects (Appleby, et al., 2021).

OCCUPATIONAL ASPECT: STRATEGIES

Governments’ financial support
According to the World Bank, students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic lost about $17 trillion in lifetime earnings (2020 prices). This was equivalent to about 14% of gross world product in 2020 (The World Bank, 2021). Governments in many countries introduced programs and policies to reduce the impact of this loss. The Turkish government prohibited employers from laying off workers (De la Rosa et al, 2022), the Canadian government provided direct funding for families, businesses and students (Government of Canada, 2021; Government of Canada, 2022a; Government of Canada, 2022b), the American government introduced relief measures for students such as suspension of loan payments, cancellation of defaulted loans, and zero interest rates on student loans (Federal Student Aid, 2022), and the Australian government supported students in training and finding jobs (Australian Government, 2022). In countries where students were studying remotely due to the pandemic, but due to supportive government policies were free of student debt, only 12% of surveyed students reported financial stress compared to 42% of students in other countries (Adjepong, et al., 2021).

Schools’ financial education
With almost 41% of students losing financial resources due to the pandemic (N26, 2021), it is important that students receive education on managing their personal finances. Students who receive financial guidance, assistance, tools, and materials become more aware of the on-campus financial services and resources available to them and less inclined to overestimate their ability to deal with personal financial difficulties by themselves (Lim, et al., 2014). At the same time, knowledge about student loan borrowing and repayment, budgeting and savings, credit card and overdraft use, investments and spending can help students plan their finances and make responsible financial decisions. Personal finances education facilitates financial help-seeking behaviour and boosts financial self-efficacy in students. These have been found to help mitigate anxiety caused by pandemic-related financial stress (Lim, et al., 2014; Fernandes, et al., 2014).

INTELLECTUAL ASPECT: IMPACT

Media disinformation
Owing to certain negative aspects of the information technology revolution, COVID-19 is the first pandemic in history to go hand-in-hand with infodemic. WHO defines infodemic as an overabundance of information, including wrong information designed “to undermine the public health response”, and finds infodemic to be harmful to people’s physical and mental health (WHO, 2020). An analysis of 38 million articles on COVID-19 that were published in English between January 1 and May 26, 2020 showed that 84% of the information contained was neither fact-checked nor questioned before it was made public (Evanega, et al., 2020). It has also been reported that the amount of news and information consumed about COVID-19 was positively correlated with anxiety in students (Kleiman, et al., 2020, Xie, et al., 2020).

Although the impact of disinformation has been found to be considerably lower for students than for the general population (Jabbour, et al., 2022), fake news spreads faster than credible information (Shu, et al., 2017) and can lead to tragedy. For example, a man in India, who was convinced by fake news that he had COVID-19, committed suicide so as to avoid infecting his family (Wallen, 2020), while three people in Nigeria overdosed on chloroquine, believing it could treat the coronavirus (Busarl, Adebayo, 2020).

Internet overconsumption
While the internet played a crucial role in maintaining social communications and workflows during the pandemic, it can also be detrimental to mental health when used in excess (Baumann, et al., 2021; Prowse, et al., 2021; Nour, Sinky, Natto, 2022). In a German study, almost 30% of surveyed students displayed “problematic internet use” with both worktime and leisure-time internet use being risk factors for their mental health. Students with balanced work-time internet use of 5-28 hours per week were found to have a higher perceived quality of life than students who spent less than 5 hours per week or more than 28 hours per week on the internet for work. Students who used the internet for such leisure activities as video gaming, online gambling, browsing for fun, shopping, and social networking for 4-21 hours per week were found to be more prone to addictive behaviour than were students who used the internet less than 4 hours per week on these activities (Gao, et al., 2020).

INTELLECTUAL ASPECT: STRATEGIES

Credible sources of information
It has been noted in the academic literature that medical students experienced less anxiety and depression from information about the COVID-19 pandemic than did non-medical students (Voltmer, et al., 2021; Werner, et al., 2021; Xie, et al., 2020). This was due to the professional knowledge medical students have of the causes, transmission routes, prevention, and treatment of the viruses, which helps them to recognise “yellow” journalism – journalism that is not well-researched and uses sensationalism and exaggeration to attract readers (Xie, et al., 2020). Since the negative psychological impact of the pandemic was largely due to fear of the unknown, it is imperative that people educate themselves about COVID-19 and similar crisis events, relying only on accurate, valid, and trustworthy information (Wathelet, et al., 2020, Xie, et al., 2020).

Credible sources that provide reliable, science-based information on the pandemic, for example, are WHO, ministries of health, public health institutes, and centres for disease control (Zarocostas, 2020). Various social media platforms should be treated with caution as the studies of them have produced concerning results. For example, Twitter, which was found by one study in Lebanon to be the most popular medium used by medical workers, is associated with more adverse impacts on mental health than Facebook, where healthcare professionals are generally not very active (Jabbour, et al., 2022).

Supportive places of restoration
In much the same way that people are re-evaluating the importance of the Urban Green Spaces for their mental health (Collins, et al., 2022, Geng, et al., 2021), people are re-examining the role that the academic library can play in strengthening the psychological well-being of students. The academic library is transforming from a place that merely keeps information materials to an organization that also supports mental wellness. Researchers who surveyed 50 academic libraries in the UK (one third of the country’s total academic libraries), offered a holistic model of library support for student mental health that has eight components (Cox, Brewster, 2020). According to this model, in addition to promoting knowledge, research, and curiosity academic libraries can address the students’ “library anxiety” (Mellon, 1986) originating in library services themselves; provide mental health information and spaces for relaxation; be a safe place for students to discuss their issues; host such well-being activities as animal petting, mindfulness sessions, craft classes, yoga, drawing, houseplants give-away, and board games; refer students to relevant mental health services; collaborate with other college departments; and support the mental well-being of library staff so they can better assist the students (Cox, Brewster, 2020).

EMOTIONAL ASPECT: IMPACT

Fear of COVID-19 infection
The biggest fear that students had about COVID-19 was that some member of their family or close social circle would catch the virus. For instance, 75-84% of the students surveyed in the UK, Canada, and Turkey expressed worries about their family members and friends contracting COVID-19 while only 48% of students in the UK and Canada were concerned about catching the virus themselves (Evans, et al., 2021; Appleby, et al., 2021; Sümen, Adıbelli, 2021). The more apprehension the students had about COVID-19 becoming a pandemic and being transmitted to their loved ones, the more they reported stress, anxiety, and depression (Werner, et al., 2021; Sümen, Adıbelli, 2021). At the same time, some studies have cautioned students against having an excessive or unrealistic optimism about the virus in order to avoid engaging in unsafe behaviours that could increase their risk of infection (Kleiman, et al., 2020).

Fear of accessing mental health help
While students were confused and stressed about the COVID-19 pandemic, many were also reluctant to seek professional mental health help. Although there was a 32% growth in the number of online mental health management programs and mobile mental health care apps during the outbreak (Auxier, Westcott, Bucaille, 2021), 91% and 74% of examined students in Spain and the UAE respectively had never used a mobile app for mental health purposes (Marques, et al., 2020; Drissi, et al, 2020). This was due to the students’ fear of being misunderstood and discriminated against by others, their perception that they had no need for psychological help, or their fear of intensifying their mental issues, as well as a lack of awareness about and/or poor usability, functionality, services, and effectiveness of the mobile mental health care applications (Marques, et al., 2020; Drissi, et.al., 2020; Di Consiglio, et al., 2021).

EMOTIONAL ASPECT: STRATEGIES

Family psychological support
There is overwhelming research evidence that family support plays a key role in the psychological well-being of students. For example, four studies with a total sample of 12,818 students confirmed that living with parents was a protective factor against pandemic-related anxiety, depression, and stress among students (Cao, et al., 2020; Cam, et al., 2022; Li, et al., 2021; Huang, et al., 2021). Not only does the support of loved ones have a healing effect on an individual's mental health after trauma, but it also builds up a person’s resilience to stress before trauma (Cam, et al., 2022; Li, et al., 2021).

Another study concluded that, despite the troubles and risks related to tickets, travel, restrictions, and quarantine, students who went back to their home countries during the pandemic had higher mental health scores than those who stayed in their countries of study (Lai, et al., 2020). Even interacting with family through such online platforms as Facetime, Zoom and Skype was found to be less beneficial than connecting in person (Prowse, et al., 2021).

Professional psychological support
Professional psychological support, such as mental health care apps and stress management programs, have proven to be very helpful. Almost 83% of students in the UAE and 80% of students in Spain who had used such platforms reported their readiness to use them again, citing the advantages in cost, time, accessibility, anonymity, confidentiality, and security that these platforms offer (Marques, et al., 2020; Drissi, et al, 2020).

An Italian online program that aims to prevent psychological distress in students through mental health literacy claims that 24% of students who did not accept psychological therapy after the interviews had, nevertheless, asked for access to the program, suggesting that the program has the potential to reach students who would otherwise not seek psychological help (Di Consiglio, et al., 2021). A French online stress management program that specifically targeted students’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic showed a decrease in anxiety and increase in prevention of substance abuse and academic exhaustion among students who completed the program (Charbonnier, et al., 2022).

SPIRITUAL ASPECT: IMPACT

Ruminations
How and to what extent the mental health of students was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic largely depended on students’ individual attitudes towards it. Those who tended to ruminate – i.e., concentrate on negative feelings and thoughts about the pandemic - were more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, and stress than those who did not (Zsido, et al., 2022). Pandemic-related rumination was caused by uncertainty and confusion due to the prolonged exposure to information overload, and lead to perceptions of threat, fear, and negative emotions and memories, which can result in more damage to the psychological mental health than is brought by the pandemic itself (Satici, et al., 2020). Engaging in such activities as pursuing a hobby, exercising, reading, and maintaining routines, for example, are largely regarded as self-distracting strategies (Holt-Gosselin, et al., 2021) that can be used to reduce rumination. However, many students either chose not to use these strategies at all, or not use them as productively as adults do (Fukase, et al., 2022).

Self-blame
An important reason why students had trouble pursuing healthy, coping strategies during the pandemic was that they did not yet possess a fully developed ability to recognise and control negative emotions (Fukase, et al., 2022). For example, students are more prone to self-blame – i.e., criticising themselves for a perceived sense of responsibility in the situation - (Gurvich, et al., 2020), than adults (Fukase, et al., 2022). Alarmingly, a study of 11,227 people from 30 countries identified self-blame as the most prominent predictor of negative psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic (Eisenbeck, et al., 2021). Also, it has been found that while self-blame has an adverse impact on people of all ages, it affects students the most (Fukase, et al., 2022). As such, self-blame is especially worrying in cases where individuals may choose to judge themselves for experiencing anxiety and depression during a pandemic, as it may only deepen and prolong those conditions (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991).

SPIRITUAL ASPECT: STRATEGIES

Mindfulness
The mental technique that can best help students observe their own thoughts and emotions is known as mindfulness. A German study views mindfulness as a combination of self-regulated attention, or awareness of the present moment, and an orientation towards experience, - i.e., openness to and acceptance of experiences without judgment (Götmann, et al., 2021). Mindfulness has been reported to evoke the ability to “savour” positive emotions before, during, and after an event (Paucsik, et al., 2022), as well as to help students recognise positive aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic-related changes (Götmann, et al., 2021). Apart from provoking healthy coping strategies (Götmann, et al., 2021), mindfulness also gives rise to self-compassion in students (Paucsik, et al., 2022), which together lead to a reduction in anxiety and depression and an increase in the physiological well-being of students (Götmann, et al., 2021; Paucsik, et al., 2022).

Meaning
While it might seem that the secret to coping with the stressors of events such as a pandemic is replacing negative with positive attitudes, it is important to recognise that the most meaningful experiences come out of accepting both the positive and negative aspects of life as an opportunity to grow as a person. It has been shown that students who did not catastrophise the pandemic (Zsido, et al., 2022), but still viewed it as a challenge, were able to embrace it as a chance to gain new personal, social, and adaptive skills (Chu, et al., 2022). These students, as well as those who kept gratitude reflection journals during the pandemic, exhibited high levels of psychological growth (Chu, et al., 2022; Geier, Morris, 2022). It has also been demonstrated that meaning-centered coping strategies, such as positive reframing, hope, existential courage, life appreciation, engagement in meaningful activities, and prosocial behavior, played the main role in maintaining mental health during the pandemic (Eisenbeck, et al., 2021).

Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated social restrictions brought unprecedented disruptions into the lives of billions of people around the world. A plethora of academic studies reported on the negative impact that the pandemic and the ensuing world-wide schools and businesses closures had on mental health. As a particularly vulnerable group due to age-related physical and mental characteristics, college students were most affected by the pandemic.

COVID-19 adversely influenced six aspects of students’ lives: social, physical, occupational, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. In the social aspect, school closures brought loneliness. In the physical aspect, the strict lockdown measures and poor lockdown conditions led to sleep disturbances, decreased physical activity, increased sedentary behaviour, greater substance use, and more suicidal thoughts. In the financial aspect, unemployment caused financial instability in families and uncertainty about graduates’ job prospects. In the intellectual aspect, the media created an overload of disinformation. In the emotional aspect, the virus itself evoked fear of infection and infecting others as well as a reluctance to ask for psychological help. In the spiritual aspect, uncertainty provoked rumination and self-blame. Together, these resulted in severe stress, anxiety, depression, and an overall deterioration in the mental health of college students.

The negative effects of events such as the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of students can be alleviated by adopting healthy coping strategies in each of the six aspects of students’ lives. In the social aspect, distance education can maintain education stability, BEVs can improve confinement conditions, and UGSs can serve as restorative and safe replacements for meeting venues. In the physical aspect, exercising as well as house-related activities, chores, clearing piled-up work, and gardening can improve sleep, increase physical activity, and decrease sedentary behaviour, substance use, and suicidal thoughts. In the financial aspect, government financial support and financial education by schools can reduce the financial burden. In the intellectual aspect, credible sources of information and changes to the role of libraries can create a safer educational environment. In the emotional aspect, close family psychological support and remote professional psychological support can help students work through emotional issues. In the spiritual aspect, practices of mindfulness, meaning, and gratitude can increase self-compassion and self-resilience. Together, these can significantly decrease stress, anxiety, and depression as well as improve the overall mental health of college students.

Being a global crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic should not have been catastrophised, but rather, viewed as a challenge that could be treated as an opportunity for personal growth and development. After all, while some events are beyond our control, our own reaction to those events is within our reach.

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BIOGRAPHY

Valeriya Sytnik has an honours degree in International Business Management from the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China. She is a Fellow of the Centre for Scholarship and Research (CSR) at UBSS. Valeriya has been working in China as a marketing manager for her family trading company, Tramplin (HK) Innovation Co. Limited since 2011. She intends to pursue a second degree in psychology. Her research interests focus on the social psychology of conflict analysis and resolution.