Loss of mental health support among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has simultaneously exacerbated mental health concerns among college students and made it more challenging for many students to access mental health support. However, little is known about the extent of mental health support loss among college students, or which students have lost support. Participants: 415 undergraduate students who reported receiving mental health support prior to the pandemic participated. Methods: Students completed an online questionnaire between March and May of 2020. Researchers examined the extent of support loss and how support loss differed by demographic and mental health variables. Methods pre-registered at https://osf.io/m83hz. Results: 62% of respondents reported loss of mental health support. Loss of support was associated with more severe depressive symptoms (p < .001), more severe anxiety symptoms (p < .001), suicidal ideation (p < .001), and sexual minority identity (p = .017). Conclusions: Loss of support was common, especially among more vulnerable students.

Keywords:

• College
• Covid-19
• mental health support
• mental health
• student
• treatment access

Conflict of interest disclosure

Jessica L. Schleider serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Walden Wise and the Clinical Advisory Board for Koko; receives consulting fees from Kooth, LLC; is Co-Founder and Co-Director of Single Session Support Solutions; and receives book royalties from New Harbinger, Oxford University Press, and Little Brown Book Group. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States of America and received approval from the Stony Brook University IRB.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant HRC2032386 and by a Stony Brook University OVPR award.