Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Intensive Longitudinal Study Exploring the Dynamic Ecosystem of Psychosocial Factors and Mental Distress Among College Students

Background: Lockdowns and social isolation can have a considerable effect on the mental health of college students. We therefore set out to better understand what factors had an influence on student’s mental health during the COVID-19-pandemic. Specifically, we aimed to 1) identify sociodemographic characteristics that put students at an increased risk for mental distress, to 2) investigate the mental health ecosystem in which psychosocial and COVID-specific factors affect each other, and to 3) examine how sociodemographic characteristics that put students at risk for mental distress affect the mental health ecosystem. Methods: We tracked six psychosocial factors (two wellbeing, university-related and social factors each) as well as four COVID-specific factors among Cambridge University students, using a daily survey administered between February and March 2021. In addition, we assessed a mental distress index collected weekly. We applied latent growth curve modelling and multi-level vector auto-regression network models on data of 861 students. Results: We found that 1) a history of psychosocial and/ or psychopharmacological treatment was associated with greater mental distress. Moreover, 2) wellbeing, workload mastery and loneliness were the most central factors in the mental health ecosystem. Lastly 3) current psychosocial and psychopharmacological treatment seemed to have a significant effect on the mental health ecosystem, particularly with regard to linking psychosocial and COVID-specific factors with each other. Conclusions: Previous or current psychosocial and psychopharmacological treatment signal risk for student mental distress, and especially current treatment seems to affect how psychosocial and COVID-specific factors interact from day-to-day. Wellbeing and workload mastery seem particularly advantageous and loneliness particularly disadvantageous dynamic factors for mental health, and should be tested for their mitigation potential in future periods of remote teaching, lockdown, or community crises.