User:Luggua/Mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Students

The pandemic impacted students directly due to infection and indirectly through the mitigation efforts. The non academic support and essential services like health and mental health resources they provide for their students are necessary factors for student's emotional, social, and physical well being. Long term school closures and limited resources caused by the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in adverse mental health affects for students of all ages.

K-12

In a recent survey it was found that 38 percent of K-12 students are more concerned with their well-being, 51 percent report being more stressed, and 39 percent feel lonelier. The CDC reported that from March 2020 to October 2020, the number of mental health-related hospital emergency department visits rose 24 percent for children ages five to eleven and 31 percent for students ages twelve to seventeen. This is an increasing concern for mental health professionals around the world as they emphasize the importance mental health issues being identified and treated early because they tend to begin in one’s childhood.

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Higher Education

The Higher Education Policy Institute conducted a study that reported that 63% of students claimed that their mental health had worsened, and that 38% demonstrated satisfaction with the mental health service access. Physical harm such as overdose, suicide and substance abuse reached an all-time high. Academic stress, dissatisfaction with the quality of teaching and fear of infection were associated with higher depression scores. Higher scores were also associated with frustration and boredom, inadequate resources, inadequate information, insufficient financial resources and perceived stigma.

Involvement in a steady relationship and living with others were associated with lower depressive scores. Research reported that psychological stress following strict confinement was moderated by levels of the pre-pandemic stress hormone cortisol and individual coping skills. Stay-at-home orders that worsened self-reports of stress also increased cognitive abilities including perspective taking and working memory. However, that greater emotion regulation (measured pre-pandemic) was associated with lower acute stress (measured by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised) in response to the early pandemic in the US during lockdown.

Isolation from others and lack of contact with mental health services worsened symptoms. The specific level of impact on students reflected their demographic backgrounds: students from low-income households and students of color experienced greater mental health and academic impacts. Students who struggle with mental health also struggled academically. Students from high-income households and those in successful school districts were more likely to have to mental health (and other) resources.

Those already living with psychopathology were more vulnerable to experience heightened levels of distress during lockdown measures. Specifically, researchers saw an increase in the amount of eating disorders related vulnerabilities. Social isolation that accompanies lockdown and stay at home measures for many resulted in a decrease in physical movement and activity, an increased amount of food in the home, and an increased time spent with a screen. There was an increase of 10% of student's perception of their body and the description of their weight as a risk factor for acquiring an eating disorder and exhibiting symptoms during the months between January 2020 and April 2020.

Studies showed that although college students are not resulting to have significant increases in their BMI, the rates in which college students are concerned about gaining weight and subsequent increases in their BMI have significantly increased'''. '''