Research on the Impact of COVID-19 on College Students' Mental

Health: A Chain Mediation Model Investigation

Xiyang Yin

1,*

, Yinjia Zheng

and Yali Ni

1,*

Guangzhou Huashang Vocational College, Guangzhou 511300, China

Department of Psychology, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Province,

Guangzhou 510170, China

Keywords:

COVID-19, Social Isolation, Mental Health, Coping Style, Attachment Avoidance.

Abstract:

To investigate the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on college students’ mental health, the

current research examined the association between mental health and protective factors. The research used

the Symptom Checklist 90 scale (SCL-90) to assess college students’ mental health in September 2019 (T1).

Then, the SCL-90, the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) scale and the Coping Style Questionnaire

(CSQ) were used to assess college students’ mental health and protective factors in March 2020 (T2). Firstly,

all of the variables in the research had a close relationship. Secondly, the research found a chain mediation

model that demonstrated attachment avoidance and negative coping styles had an indirect negative impact on

T2 mental health. These findings imply that parents should provide parental support for college students and

help them cope with stress in a proper way.

1 INTRODUCTION

Social isolation is considered an effective way to

contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19),

which has forced goverments to impose lockdown

measure to limit the rapid virus transimission (Ahrens,

2021). There is an urgent need to assess and recognize

the influence of social isolation on college students

who might be more vulnerable to poor mental health.

Due to social isolation, college students spend

increasingly more time with their parents. Adult

attachment theory suggested that insecure attachment,

such as attachment avoidance, is a risk factor for

mental health. Although attachment and its

association with mental health have been studied in

the context of college students, there has been limited

research on its association with social isolation during

the COVID-19 outbreak (Jiang, 2014). For example,

the difficulty of attachment has been linked to the

other mental health problems. Attachment anxiety

and avoidance, the two dimensions of attachment, are

positively correlated with problematic behavior and

psychological distress. Moreover, research revealed

that coping styles had a close link with mental health

(Reilly, 2021). Negative coping style refers to dealing

with problems by neglecting, avoidance and denial,

whereas positive coping style refers to dealing with

problems through direct and rational means (Reilly,

2021). Previous researches have suggested that

negative coping style could elevate the likelihood of

psychological symptoms when confronted with

stressful events, and positive coping style could

alleviate depressed mood. It seems that attachment

and coping styles may be the specialty-specific

protective factors for mental health during the

COVID-19 outbreak. Previous studies on COVID-19

mainly focus on cross-sectional, with fewer

longitudinal studies in all periods focusing on mental

health (Li, 2020). However, it is impossible to assess

the significance of protective factors during the

epidemic without data from the pre-epidemic period.

To fill this gap, it is necessary to conduct a

longitudinal analysis. Thus, we further examine the

association between mental health and protective

factors. This research contributes to a better

understanding of the association within attachment

relationships, coping styles, and mental health in this

epidemic, adding to this literature evidence of

specialty-specific protective factors for psychology

effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

396

Yin, X., Zheng, Y. and Ni, Y.

Research on the Impact Of COVID-19 on College Students’ Mental Health: A Chain Mediation Model Investigation.

DOI: 10.5220/0012021600003633

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine (ICBB 2022), pages 396-399

ISBN: 978-989-758-637-8

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

2 OBJECT AND METHOD

Using the random sampling method, 650 students

aged 18 to 20 years old were selected from a college

in southern China. All participants resided in

Guangdong province, a southern province in China,

without the confirmed COVID-19 cases. The

Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), the Experiences in

Close Relationships (ECR) scale, and the Coping

Style Questionnaire (CSQ) were employed in this

study. (Jiang, 2014; Reilly, 2021; Zhu, 2021) These

scales have good reliability and validity, which is

widely used in the Chinese population. A two-stage

sampling design was used, which is conducted as an

online survey. Participants completed the SCL-90

scale before the COVID-19 outbreak (September

2019, T1). Then, they completed the SCL-90, the

ECR Scale, and the CSQ during the pandemic (Match

2020, T2). Totally 541 valid questionnaires were

collected in the T2 period. SPSS statistical software

(version 24.0) was used for data analysis in the

current study.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Collinearity Analysis

In this study, the collinearity statistics method was

used to diagnose the value of TOL and Vif. The

results showed that the TOL values of attachment

anxiety, attachment avoidance, negative coping,

positive coping and T1 mental health were 0.88, 0.82,

0.72, 0.87 and 0.72, and the Vif values were 1.13,

1.22, 1.4, 1.15 and 1.4 respectively. According to the

collinearity statistics standard, the VIF values of

attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, negative

coping, positive coping and T1 mental health were

below the cutoff of 5, indicating no concerns with

collinearity.

3.2

Correlation Analysis

According to Tab. 1, attachment anxiety (r = 0.23, P

< 0.01) and attachment avoidance (r = 0.30, P < 0.01)

were significantly positively correlated with negative

coping styles. Attachment anxiety (r = -0.15, P < 0.01)

and attachment avoidance (r = -0.13, P < 0.01) were

significantly negatively correlated with positive

coping styles. Negative coping style had a significant

positive correlation with mental health, while positive

coping style had a significant negative correlation

with mental health. Results have shown that a positive

problem-focused coping style could enhance mental

health effectively, while a negative emotion-focused

coping style may worsen mental health problems.

Furthermore, results suggested that attachment

anxiety and avoidance are positively correlated with

mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Table 1: Descriptive statistical results of all variables.

M±SD 1 2 3 4 5 6

1. attachment anxiet

62.65±10.32 1

2. attachment avoidance 59.74±17.01 0.26

3. ne

ative co

27.6±9.01 0.23

0.3

4. positive coping 35.73±6.4 -0.15

-0.13

0.13

5.T1 mental health 118.69±37.82 0.17

0.34

0.43

-0.21

6.T2 mental health 129.55±34.94 0.15

0.39

0.36

-0.18

0.64

Note: "*" stands for P < 0.05, "* *" P < 0.01, "* * *" P < 0.001 (two-tailed), the same below.

3.3 The Impact of COVID-19 on the

Psychological Symptoms

We used the paired samples t-test to examine the

impact of COVID-19 on the psychological symptoms.

According to Tab. 2, there were significant

differences between stages emerged in all the SCL-90

subscales. When comparing the T1 and T2 SCL-90

subscales, significant increase in psycholgical

symptoms were found (Somatization: t = -5.99, P <

0.01; Obsessive symptom: t = -11.21, P < 0.01;

Interpersonal sensitivity: t = -7.7, P < 0.01;

Depression: t = -5.85, P < 0.01; Anxiety: t = -8.7, P <

0.01; Hostility: t = -2.52, P < 0.05; Terror: t = -4.91,

P < 0.01; Paranoid symptom: t = -6.68, P < 0.01;

Psychiatric symptom: t = -5.73, P < 0.01; Others: t =

-5.75, P < 0.01). Especially, college students reported

significantly more obsessive symptoms (M ± SD =

1.76 ± 0.52) during the COVID-19 outbreak (t = -

11.21, P < 0.01), compared to the pre-pandemic (M ±

SD = 1.54 ± 0.54). During the COVID-19, the

increase of obsessive symptoms may be related to the

Research on the Impact Of COVID-19 on College Students’ Mental Health: A Chain Mediation Model Investigation

397

emphasis on personal hygiene. It is effective to fill the

gap of cross-sectional study, adding to this literature

evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on the

psychological symptoms.

3.4

The Chain Model Investigation

We used the software of process 3.5 of SPSS 24.0 to

examine the chain model (Fig. 1). COVID-19's effect

on mental health had a significant path coefficient

(β=0.05, P<0.01). The direct effect was significant

(direct effect = 0.5, CI: 0.42, 0.60). The chain

mediating effect of attachment avoidance and

negative coping were found in the relationship

between T1 and T2 stage. The indirect effect was

significant (△indirect effect = 0.1, CI: 0.01,0.08),

accounting for 16.68% of the total effect. The 95%

confidence of the effect estimates of the above paths

does not include zero, so this path was significant.

When attachment avoidance became more frequent,

more negative coping styles were used to deal with

the stress caused by the COVID-19, resulting in poor

mental health. In this study, it was found that COVID-

19 and poor attachment relationships between parents

and college students were associated with mental

health problems among college students. It suggested

that parental support should be strengthened and

conflicts between parents and college students should

be reduced. These findings have both theoretical and

practical implications, shedding light on the mental

health promotion as potential protective factor.

Table 2: Before and after comparison of psychological symptoms for quality indicators.

T1 psychological symptoms

T2 psychological symptoms

M SD M SD

1. Somatization 541 1.21 0.37 1.3 0.35 -5.99

***

2. Obsessive symptom 541 1.54 0.54 1.76 0.52 -11.21

***

3. Inter

ersonal sensitivit

541 1.41 0.54 1.56 0.5 -7.7

***

4. Depression 541 1.32 0.48 1.42 0.49 -5.85

***

5. Anxiet

541 1.29 0.45 1.44 0.44 -8.7

***

6. Hostilit

541 1.3 0.47 1.35 0.44 -2.52

7. Terro

541 1.25 0.43 1.33 0.45 -4.91

***

8. Paranoid symptom 541 1.27 0.45 1.36 0.42 -6.68

***

9. Ps

chiatric s

tom 541 1.31 0.42 1.36 0.37 -5.73

***

10. Others 541 1.31 0.45 1.42 0.46 -5.75

***

Figure 1: The chain model.

0.5

***

0.14

0.1

***

0.1

***

0.35

0.12

0.1

***

attachment

anxiety

attachment

avoidance

negative

coping

ICBB 2022 - International Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine

398

4 CONCLUSION

The following conclusions are drawn from the above-

mentioned findings and discussions:

(1) In the special social environment of COVID-

19, lockdown measures lead to social isolation, which

exacerbates individual psychological problems. The

COVID-19 pandemic is inducing an additional

burden on peoples mental health, especially

emotional reactions.

(2) In terms of intervention strategies, parents

must be prepared to provide parental support for

students who coped with the pandemic with negative

styles when quarantined at home during the COVID-

19 outbreak.

(3) Based on these findings, it is necessary for

governments, college, and families to pay closed

attention to the psychological reactions of college

students during the COVID-19 pandemic and take

effective rmeasures to reverse the negative impact of

the lockdown measure on mental health for college

students.

(4) Some limitations of the current research must

be considered. Firstly, some students did not

complete the survey during the T2 measurements.

Secondly, certain COVID-19 effects might damage

mental health after a longer period due to chronic

stress. However, we were unable to observe the

mental health deterioration for a longer time.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was financially supported by the school

level teaching and scientific research project of

Guangzhou Huashang Vocational College “Research

on the changing rules and protective factors of

college students' mental health during epidemic

prevention: based on the perspective of positive

psychology” (KY2022012). This work was also

financially supported by the Youth Project of

Education department of Guangdong Province

(2021WQNCX288) and the Department of

Guangdong Institute of Ideological and Political

Education 2021 (SCNUKFYB101).

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