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First-year college students are reporting symptoms of depression and anxiety significantly more often than they were before the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study co-authored by Krista Perreira, PhD, professor in the UNC Department of Social Medicine.


CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – First-year college students are reporting symptoms of depression and anxiety significantly more often than they were before the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The study, published today in PLOS One, is unique among the growing number of reports looking at mental health struggles.

First, the study is based on a survey of the same group of college students before and after the pandemic began, plus researchers asked about a broad range of stressors from job loss to social isolation that could lead to worsening mental health.

Using survey data, researchers found the prevalence of moderate-severe anxiety in first-year college students increased 40%, from 18.1% before the pandemic to 25.3% within four months after the pandemic began; and the prevalence of moderate-severe depression in first years increased by 48%, from 21.5% to 31.7%.

“First-year college students seem to be particularly struggling with social isolation and adapting to distanced learning,” said lead study author Jane Cooley Fruehwirth, PhD, an economist in the UNC-Chapel Hill College of Arts and Sciences and a Faculty Fellow at the Carolina Population Center.

Her collaborators include Siddhartha Biswas, a doctoral candidate in economics and Krista Perreira, PhD, a professor of Social Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine and a Faculty Fellow at the Carolina Population Center. The study was based on surveys of 419 first-year students. .

Hardest hit by depression were Black students, whose incidence of depression grew by 89%. Depression and anxiety increased dramatically among sexual and gender minority students.

For Hispanics and first-generation college students, feelings of social isolation declined from 24.2% to 17.1% and 35.3% to 27.4%, respectively as these students left the university and returned to their homes.

Addressing pandemic pressures

The study showed declines in student mental health were associated with distanced learning and social isolation more so than other stressors such as work reduction or worries about coronavirus infecting them or their family or friends.

Fruehwirth said the results speak to the difficulties colleges face as they determine how to best help students navigate the semesters ahead.

“Even prior to the pandemic, colleges were struggling to find ways to deal with a growing mental health crisis on their campuses,” Fruehwirth said. “Now with all the pressures of the pandemic, resources are even tighter yet the mental health needs of students are growing. This problem isn’t going to just go away, and it is important that we address this before students reach a crisis stage.”

One way colleges can help freshman is by developing creative solutions to help them feel less socially isolated. Another is helping them succeed as remote learners.

“I’ve been encouraged to see all the initiatives from the Learning Center at UNC-Chapel Hill that offer coaching to students to adapt to the online learning environment,” Fruehwirth said.

“At the same time, I really want instructors to understand the toll this is taking on students and know how important their efforts can be in finding ways to support those who are struggling.”

This research was supported by the Carolina Population Center and its National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Grant Award Number P2C HD50924 (JF), the Integrating Special Populations/ North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute through Grant Award Number ILITR002489 (KP).