Randomized controlled trials assessing efficacy of brief web-based stress management interventions for college students during the COVID pandemic.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of brief, self-guided web-based interventions for decreasing distress among U.S. college students during the pandemic. Three randomized controlled trials were conducted during the spring (Study 1), summer (Study 2), and fall (Study 3) 2020 terms, and were combined into one sample to increase power (N = 775). We evaluated a web-based intervention that focused on increasing present control that had been shown to be effective in several studies prior to the pandemic (e.g., Nguyen-Feng et al., 2017). This intervention was compared to an active comparison condition (psychoeducation about and reminders to engage in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-recommended stress management techniques) in Study 1, to a waitlist comparison in Study 2, and to both comparison conditions in Study 3. Participants were undergraduate psychology students at two campuses of a midwestern state university system. Outcomes-perceived stress (primary); depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms (secondary); and boredom (tertiary)-were assessed at pretest and posttest (and 3-week follow-up in Study 3). Differences across conditions were significant for perceived stress, stress symptoms, and boredom (but not depression or anxiety). Contrary to hypotheses, the Present Control and CDC stress management interventions were equally effective. Both were more effective than no intervention (between-group ds = -0.27 and -0.42). Both interventions were more effective for students with higher baseline stress levels. Completion and adherence rates were high for both conditions. Results suggest that very brief, self-guided stress management interventions can be effective in reducing stress among college students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Racism, Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, and Racial Disparity in the U.S. COVID-19 Syndemic.

The COVID-19 syndemic, with a disproportionately higher adverse impact on communities of color (i.e., COVID-19 infection and death), will likely exacerbate the existing health disparities in trauma-related symptoms between people of color (POC) and White Americans. However, no studies have examined the racial disparity in posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) during COVID-19. Grounded in ecological theory and racial trauma framework, we investigated racial disparity in PTSS and three possible mechanisms, 1) COVID stress, 2) direct racism, and 3) indirect racism, for these disparities using a large U.S. national sample. Results indicated that POC reported higher levels of PTSS than White Americans. The PTSS racial disparity was accounted more by direct and indirect racism than by the COVID-19-specific stressors, after controlling for age, gender, education, income, parent status, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and intimate partner violence (IPV). Additional fine-grained analyses for Hispanic/Latinx Americans, Black/African Americans, and Asian American and Pacific Islanders by and large corroborated the above findings. Our findings highlighted the deleterious impact of the ongoing racism pandemic on the POC community as a public health crisis in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic.Supplemental data for this article is available online at at http://doi:10.1080/08964289.2021.2006131.

US college student mental health and COVID-19: Comparing pre-pandemic and pandemic timepoints.

OBJECTIVE: To assess mental health in US undergraduates during COVID-19; to identify key pandemic-related stressors, perceived control, and coping and their associations with mental health. PARTICIPANTS: Data collected from a sample of undergraduates in April 2020 (N = 312) were compared to data collected in Spring 2017 (N = 362). METHODS: Online measures of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms and perceived control and coping (both samples); pandemic-related stressors and perceived benefits (April 2020). RESULTS: Depression and stress symptoms were higher in April 2020 than in 2017. Most students reported perceiving at least some pandemic-related benefits. Top-rated stressors involved missing seeing friends and school-related stressors. Perceived control and approach coping were lower during the pandemic but related to better mental health; avoidant coping was higher during the pandemic and related to poorer mental health. CONCLUSIONS: Findings can inform campuses regarding how to improve student mental health during COVID and beyond.

Introduction to the special section on international perspectives on the coronavirus pandemic

We are honored to introduce this special section on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Beginning with the first confirmed case in late 2019, COVID-19 has become a global pandemic. This special section aims to serve as a platform for researchers, practitioners, educators, and policymakers around the world to exchange experiences, challenges, lessons learned, and successes during this unprecedented period. Commentaries were encouraged to address the following guiding questions specific to the author's country: (a) how is the situation in your country regarding the COVID-19 pandemic?;(b) how do you think the pandemic is affecting the population from a mental health perspective?;(c) how do people respond to the situation in your country?;(d) what is helpful and what is less helpful in dealing with the situation?;and (e) how is health care currently organized? (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

COVID in New York City, the epicenter: A New York University perspective and COVID in Duluth, the Bold North: A University of Minnesota perspective.

In the first part of this dual commentary, perspectives are gathered from students at New York University. COVID in New York City is compared with the trauma of the World Trade Center. Triggers, racism, concerns, acts of kindness, and the future are considered for both. The second part of the commentary is written in juxtaposition to the New York City perspective by sharing the Upper Midwest experiences of this COVID-19 pandemic period, particularly in the small city of Duluth. Perspectives are gathered over time from students at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. The Minnesota stories are presented chronologically, from the declaration of the global pandemic to the beginning of the summer semester. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).