Manifestations of Social Anxiety in College Students Post-Pandemic

Hardaye R. Hansen and Michael J. McGee, Health Education

The long-term effects of COVID-19 on the social and political landscape of the world have yet to be seen as we enter the second-year post-vaccine. However, studies have been and are currently being conducted to examine the social effects of the pandemic and the quarantine period on the population, notably on students whose studies were interrupted by the onset of the pandemic. With students needing to adjust to online learning as they sheltered in place at home, alongside the stress of living through a global pandemic, many suffered from mental health distress that severely affected their studies. It is not overstating it to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the mental health of college students. Students have had to cope with a range of challenges, including social isolation, financial uncertainty, academic disruption, and concerns about their health and that of their loved ones. Several surveys have been conducted to measure the levels of social anxiety and mental health-related struggles amongst college-aged students around the world, before and during the pandemic period.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) indicated that 71 percent of students experienced an increase in stress and anxiety due to the outbreak of COVID-19, up from 60 percent the previous year (Son et al., 2020). Another study looked at screening rates for psychological disorders among thousands of students before and during the pandemic at eight U.S. colleges.  They found that during the pandemic there were greater rates of depression, alcohol use disorder, and bulimia nervosa/binge-eating disorder. Female students, in particular, had more risk of alcohol use disorder, and Black students faced a greater risk of depression during the pandemic (Kim, et al., 2022).   Stressors contributing to this increase included worry about personal health and the health of loved ones, difficulty concentrating and sleeping, a decrease in social interactions due to social distancing, and increased concern surrounding academic performance under pandemic circumstances (Son et al., 2020). The effects of COVID-19 on mental health are just beginning to be documented, with much of the current literature and research coming out of the earliest hot spots in China (Son et al., 2020).  

The shift to online learning has also posed unique challenges for students, including difficulties in staying motivated, a lack of engagement with peers and instructors, and a blurring of boundaries between academic and personal life.  In the NIH survey focusing specifically on the mental health effects of COVID-19 on American college students, “A vast majority of participants (89percent) indicated difficulty in concentrating on academic work due to various sources of distraction” (Son et al., 2020). Almost half of the students surveyed mentioned a distractive home environment, in which other members of their households tended to interrupt their studies, as well as mentions of lack of accountability due to the nature of online schooling, and social media and internet distractions becoming more prevalent. Quality of sleep also played a significant factor in the downturn of mental health during the stay-at-home period, with over a third of surveyed students reporting severe disruption to their sleep patterns due to the pandemic outbreak.  Students also reported increased social isolation and a significant decrease in overall social interactions, which many found was negatively impacting their mental health. The majority of students involved in this survey reported concern about their academic performance, with many perceiving the most significant challenge as the switch to online classes, and concerns surrounding the quality of the class, technical issues, and general difficulty of online learning, as well as indications of fear of reduced motivation to produce quality academic work due to tendency to procrastinate (Son et al., 2020). According to the Healthy Minds Study, which collects data from over 370 campuses across the United States, during the 2020-2021 school year, over 60percent of college students met the criteria for a diagnosis of at least one mental health issue; in the National College Health Assessment survey conducted by the American College Health Association, “almost three-quarters of students reported moderate or severe psychological stress” (Abrams, 2022). In a separate survey studying the impact of COVID-19 on students, “it was found that over 90percent of students had negative mental health as a result of the pandemic and the three most common of them (negative mental health effects) were social isolation, lack of focus and anxiety” (Pandya & Lodha, 2022).  Another systemic review of 16 studies on college students found that they reported feeling more anxious, depressed, fatigued, and disturbed than before the pandemic. Among the risk factors that contributed to these negative mental health outcomes were low family socioeconomic status and being a family member or friend of a healthcare worker (Elharake, et al., 2022).

As the pandemic has continued, universities across America have been able to adjust students to the concept of fully remote schooling, although this has had measurable drawbacks as students have made the return to on-campus classes. Remote learning has allowed for students to maintain an academic routine, which has been found to benefit mental health and psychological resilience in the long term; however, this has not been a comfortable few years for many (Pandya & Lodha, 2022). The transition to online learning has led to “acute stress among some students due to the lack of time to adjust to online learning,” and students who have been continuing their education online have often had complaints of physical ailments related to increased screen time, as well as reporting lack of motivation and not feeling interested in being involved in their educations actively (Pradya & Lodha, 2022). Students have also reported an “inability to effectively understand and learn practice-oriented subjects (such as Mathematics and Geometry) and finally leading to the inexorable screen fatigue” (Pradya & Lodha, 2022). All of these factors in combination have led students to face not only anxiety and mental health difficulties during stay-at-home orders and a year and a half of fully online learning but have also led to trepidation for those students returning to fully on-campus classes in the ‘post-pandemic’ period.

Significantly, many students reported a lack of support from their universities in finding mental health care during the pandemic period, with 57 percent of survey respondents from a March 2022 survey reporting that their universities did not offer them enough support to connect students to off-campus therapists during the pandemic and post-pandemic period (Geary, 2022). “According to a study in the New York City metropolitan area, only about half of the surveyed colleges offered information about remote counseling on their website and less than 60% of college counseling websites even offered directions for students experiencing a mental health emergency” (Lee et al., 2021). Furthering this issue, many out-of-state students were put at a greater disadvantage in finding mental health services through their universities due to state licensures, which often require psychologists to receive special permission or licenses to practice out-of-state, where students were living (Lee et al., 2021). In addition to this, flexibility for telemedicine that had been extended due to the pandemic’s classification as a public health emergency began to expire in Fall 2020, making out-of-state students more susceptible to losing mental health support completely from their universities (Lee et al., 2021). There are many suggestions that have been put forth by students, faculty, administrators, and researchers alike on how to help students ease back into on-campus learning in the post-pandemic period.

Specifically relating to community colleges, which research has suggested have more mental health needs than four-year colleges due to the demographic of students served, more funding is needed to allocate mental health services free of charge to students who may not be financially able to pay for mental healthcare themselves (Geary, 2022). In addition to providing on-campus counseling free of charge, it has been suggested that community colleges should expand their prevention efforts by offering mental health and well-being training to all students, faculty, and staff, so that issues can be identified before a crisis (Geary, 2022). In regard to four-year institutions, it has been suggested that universities should begin to promote the option of remaining online for distance learning to students who believe that distance learning is compatible with their learning style and home environment (Clary et al., 2022). While there could be potential struggles in identifying these students, “instructors might overcome this challenge by adjusting their online classes to meet different learning styles” (Clary et al., 2022). Other proposed strategies to prioritize student mental health in the post-pandemic period have included establishing helplines, online support groups, and establishing flexible and lenient academic schedules as they relate to turning in assignments (Pradya & Lodha, 2022). It has also been suggested that colleges work towards establishing strong relationships with community-based organizations in order to connect students, faculty and staff to appropriate levels of care with providers within the community at large (Pradya & Lodha, 2022).

References

• Abrams, Z. (2022, October 12). Student mental health is in crisis. Campuses are rethinking their approach. Monitor on Psychology. Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/10/mental-health-campus-care
• Clary, G., Dick, G., Yagmur Akbulut, A., & Van Slyke, C. (2022). The after times: College students’ desire to continue with Distance Learning Post pandemic. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 50(1), 122–142. https://doi.org/10.17705/1cais.05003
• Elharake, J. A., Akbar, F., Malik, A. A., Gilliam, W., & Omer, S. B. (2022). Mental health impact of COVID-19 among children and college students: A systematic review. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 1-13.
• Geary, C. (2022, May 3). The Growing Mental Health Crisis in Community Colleges. New America. Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/the-growing-mental-health-crisis-in-community-colleges/
• Kim, H., Rackoff, G. N., Fitzsimmons-Craft, E. E., Shin, K. E., Zainal, N. H., Schwob, J. T. & Newman, M. G. (2022). College mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from a nationwide survey. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 46(1), 1-10.
• Lee, J., Solomon, M., Stead, T., Kwon, B., & Ganti, L. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of US college students. BMC Psychology, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00598-3
• Lipson, S. K., Zhou, S., Abelson, S., Heinze, J., Jirsa, M., Morigney, J., Patterson, A., Singh, M., & Eisenberg, D. (2022). Trends in college student mental health and help-seeking by race/ethnicity: Findings from the National Healthy Minds Study, 2013–2021. Journal of Affective Disorders, 306, 138–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.03.038
• Pandya, A., & Lodha, P. (2022). Mental health consequences of COVID-19 pandemic among college students and coping approaches adapted by Higher Education Institutions: A scoping review. SSM – Mental Health, 2, 100122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100122
• Son, C., Hegde, S., Smith, A., Wang, X., & Sasangohar, F. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on college students’ mental health in the United States: Interview survey study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(9). https://doi.org/10.2196/21279

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