ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Evaluate COVID-19 pandemic impacts on college student mental health. PARTICIPANTS: Three cohorts of college students (2018 n = 466; 2019 n = 459; 2020, n = 563; N = 1488) from three American universities. Participants were 71.4% female, 67.5% White, and 85.9% first-year students. METHODS: Multivariable regression models and bivariate correlations were used to compare anxiety, depression, well-being, and search for meaning before and during the pandemic, and the relationships between pandemic health-compliance behaviors and mental health. RESULTS: Anxiety, depression, and well-being did not significantly worsen during compared to before (2019) the pandemic (ps = .329-.837). During the pandemic, more frequent in-person social interactions were correlated with lower anxiety (r = -0.17, p < .001) and depressive symptoms (r=-0.12, p = .008), and higher well-being (r = 0.16, p < .001), but also less handwashing (r = -0.11, p = .016) and face mask-wearing (r = -0.12, p = .008). CONCLUSIONS: We observed little evidence for pandemic impacts on college student mental health. Lower compliance with pandemic health guidelines was associated with better mental health.
ABSTRACT
Many have called for school-based student programs that teach skills related to self-care and caring for others. Here, such a program for peer-nominated adolescents was developed and piloted virtually at one high school during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a longitudinal, quasi-experimental evaluation of the program showed high-quality program implementation and promising program impacts. Effect sizes indicated moderate to large program impacts on improvements in adolescents' self-compassion, sense of interdependence, and perspective-taking, and female adolescents' interoceptive awareness, compared to controls. No group differences in compassion for others were found. The need for more research on programs that help adolescents balance compassion for the self and for others is discussed.
ABSTRACT
Adolescence is a "window of opportunity" for the cultivation of positive qualities such as mindfulness and compassion (Roeser & Pinela 2014). Although school-based mindfulness programs have shown promise in cultivating such qualities (see Roeser et al., 2020), a critique in this work has been a focus more on self-oriented care (i.e., self-compassion) rather than compassion for others (Jazaieri, 2019). In this study, drawing on an enhanced version of Stage-Environment Fit Theory (Eccles et al, 1993;Roeser & Pinela, 2014), a novel compassion-based program for adolescents called Courage of Care (CoC) was developed that balanced compassion for the self and others and utilized relational-based mindfulness and compassion practices. A mixed-methods evaluation of program implementation indicated that a virtual version of the CoC program was implemented with high quality (e.g., in a way that provided a developmental "fit" with the needs of adolescents) and engaged and motivated adolescents to practice and learn during and after the program was over. A longitudinal, quasi-experimental, treatment-control pilot evaluation of the CoC program (n = 74) was also undertaken. Effect sizes indicated moderate to large program impacts on improvements in female adolescents' interoceptive awareness over time, as well as in all adolescents' self-compassion, sense of interdependence, and perspective-taking over time compared to controls. Contrary to hypotheses, no group differences in improvements in compassion for others were found by study condition. These non-results on compassion for others are discussed in terms of the historical context of the COVID-19 pandemic, measurement limitations, program delivery, and the characteristics of the school context. Overall, this study showed a virtual version of the CoC program for adolescents was implemented with high quality and showed promise with respect to program impacts on elements of compassion for the self and others. Future studies on the CoC program could benefit from more precise measurements of compassion for others and more rigorous study designs, including a randomized control trial. Practical implications of this research for the field of school-based mindfulness and compassion programming for adolescents are discussed in terms of the need for developmentally-appropriate program content and meditation practices, virtual vs. live program delivery, and gender differences in response to treatment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)