COVID-19 and the healthy lifestyle behaviors of community college students

ABSTRACT

The young adult college student population has been the focus of lifestyle research showing a growing decline in this population's mental and physical health. The introduction of the contagious COVID-19 virus and accompanying shelter-in-place (SIP) orders drastically altered this population's lives and lifestyle behaviors. Although health behavior, mental health, stress, and anxiety information was available concerning COVID-19 for the 4-year college student population, there was minimal literature on the unique faction of community college students. Thus, this study was a means to compare the COVID-19 SIP orders with the healthy lifestyle behaviors of community college students before, during, and after the health crisis. The social cognitive theory provided a framework to understand better how personal, environmental, and behavioral factors played a role in the healthy lifestyle behaviors of this population. Purposive sampling was the approach used to obtain a sample of community college students. The participants completed a retrospective survey regarding their lifestyle behavior before, during, and after the COVID-19 SIP orders. Quantitative data analysis included descriptive statistics, crosstabulations, a coefficient of determination, and dependent and independent t tests to evaluate or compare lifestyle behaviors at different times related to COVID-19. Results indicated that the lifestyle behaviors of surveyed participants were not optimal before COVID-19 and further declined during and after the SIP orders. College administrators and local public health officials could use the results to educate and allocate resources related to lifestyle behavior best practices for virus protection and enhanced quality of life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)