Objective To
measure the
prevalence of
mental health symptoms and identify the associated factors among college
students at the beginning of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)outbreak in
China .
Methods We carried out a multi-center
cross-sectional study via snowball sampling and convenience sampling of the college
students in different areas of
China .The rates of
self -reported
depression ,
anxiety ,and stress and
post-traumatic stress disorder (
PTSD )were assessed via the 21-item
Depression -
Anxiety -Stress Scale(DASS-21)and the 6-item Impact of Event Scale-Revised(IES-6),respectively.Covariates included sociodemographic characteristics,
health -related data,and information of the
social environment .Data pertaining to
mental health service seeking were also collected.Multivariate
Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the
risk factors . Results A total of 3641 valid
questionnaires were collected from college
students .At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak,535(14.69%)
students had negative
emotions ,among which 402(11.04%),381(10.49%),and 171(4.90%)
students had the symptoms of
depression ,
anxiety ,and stress,respectively.Meanwhile,1245(34.19%)college
students had
PTSD .Among the
risk factors identified,
male gender was associated with a lower likelihood of
reporting depression symptoms(AOR=0.755,P=0.037],and
medical students were at higher
risk of
depression and stress symptoms than liberal
arts students (AOR=1.497,P=0.003;AOR=1.494,P=0.045).
Family support was associated with lower
risks of negative
emotions and
PTSD in college
students (AOR=0.918,P<0.001;AOR=0.913,P<0.001;AOR=0.899,P<0.001;AOR=0.971,P=0.021). Conclusions College
students were more sensitive to
public health emergencies ,and the
incidence of negative
emotions and
PTSD was significantly higher than that before the outbreak of COVID-19.More
attention should be paid to
female college
students who were more likely to develop negative
emotions .We should strengthen positive and proper
propaganda via
mass media and help college
students understand the situation and impact of COVID-19.Furthermore,we should enhance
family support for college
students .The
government and relevant agencies need to provide appropriate
mental health services to the
students under
similar circumstances to avoid the deterioration of their mental well-being.