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.

authored by: Elisabeth Höhne, Luise von Keyserlingk, Jannika Haase, Richard Arum, Lysann Zander
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.
Organisation(s): Institute of Education
Leibniz Research Centre Science and Society (LCSS)
External Organisation(s): University of Tübingen
University of California at Irvine
Type: Article
Journal: Social and Personality Psychology Compass
Volume: 18
Publication date: 26.02.2024
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Social Psychology
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12935 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{bcbcb93ee45d4dd2b4c3b106e67115f3,
title = "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.",
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",
author = "Elisabeth H{\"o}hne and {von Keyserlingk}, Luise and Jannika Haase and Richard Arum and Lysann Zander",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024 The Authors. Social and Personality Psychology Compass published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.",
year = "2024",
month = feb,
day = "26",
doi = "10.1111/spc3.12935",
language = "English",
volume = "18",
journal = "Social and Personality Psychology Compass",
number = "3",
}