Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-7540
Authors: | Werner, Antonia Maria Tibubos, Ana Nanette Mülder, Lina Marie Reichel, Jennifer L. Schäfer, Markus Heller, Sebastian Pfirrmann, Daniel Edelmann, Dennis Dietz, Pavel Rigotti, Thomas Beutel, Manfred E. |
Title: | The impact of lockdown stress and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health among university students in Germany |
Online publication date: | 9-Aug-2022 |
Year of first publication: | 2021 |
Language: | english |
Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic led to a shutdown of universities in Germany. In a longitudinal design, we compared mental health (depression, anxiety, somatic complaints) of university students in Germany before (June to August 2019) and in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020) and determined the impact of pandemic-related stress and loneliness on students’ mental health in self-report online surveys. We investigated 443 participants (mean age 22.8 years), among them 77% female, and 10.4% medical students. A small increase of depression mean scores was observed (F(1,420) = 5.21; p = .023), anxiety and somatic complaints have not significantly changed. There was a medium increase in loneliness from pre-pandemic scores to the pandemic situation (F(1,423) = 30.56; p < .001). Analyzed with regression analyses, current loneliness and pre-pandemic distress represented the strongest associations with mental health during the pandemic. Additionally, health-related concerns during the pandemic were associated with symptoms of depression [b = 0.21; 95%CI(0.08; 0.34); t = 3.12; p = .002], anxiety [b = 0.07; 95%CI(0.01; 0.12); t = 2.50; p = .013], somatic complaints [b = 0.33; 95%CI(0.18; 0.47); t = 4.49; p < .001], and loneliness [b = 0.10; 95%CI(0.03; 0.17); t = 2.74; p = .006]. Social stress due to the pandemic situation was associated with loneliness [b = 0.38; 95%CI(0.32; 0.45); t = 11.75; p < .001]. The results imply that university students represent a risk group for psychosocial long-term ramifications of the pandemic. |
DDC: | 150 Psychologie 150 Psychology 610 Medizin 610 Medical sciences |
Institution: | Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz |
Department: | FB 02 Sozialwiss., Medien u. Sport FB 04 Medizin |
Place: | Mainz |
ROR: | https://ror.org/023b0x485 |
DOI: | http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-7540 |
Version: | Published version |
Publication type: | Zeitschriftenaufsatz |
License: | CC BY |
Information on rights of use: | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Journal: | Scientific reports 11 |
Pages or article number: | 22637 |
Publisher: | Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature |
Publisher place: | London |
Issue date: | 2021 |
ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
Publisher DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-021-02024-5 |
Appears in collections: | JGU-Publikationen |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | ||
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the_impact_of_lockdown_stress-20220809111648311.pdf | 1.28 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |