Julianna G Nails, Joseph Maffly-Kipp, Hilary L DeShong, Sara E Lowmaster, John E Kurtz
{"title":"A crisis in college student mental health? Self-ratings of psychopathology before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.","authors":"Julianna G Nails, Joseph Maffly-Kipp, Hilary L DeShong, Sara E Lowmaster, John E Kurtz","doi":"10.1037/pas0001241","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of college students was investigated in a cross-sectional design using the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991, 2007). Three large samples of college students were recruited for research purposes and given standard instructions: 825 students from two universities assessed in the 2021-2022 academic year (postpandemic), 558 students from three universities assessed between 2016 and 2019 (prepandemic), and 1,051 students from seven universities assessed in 1989 and 1990 (college norms). Comparisons of PAI scores with the prepandemic cohort revealed several significantly higher scores in the postpandemic cohort, especially for scales related to anxiety and depression. Comparisons with the college norms revealed significantly higher scores on several PAI scales in the prepandemic cohort, and these differences were largest for scales related to anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms. PAI scales related to impulsivity, alcohol use, and other behavior problems showed no changes or decline from earlier to later cohorts. Taken together, the findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified problems with anxiety and depression that existed before the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":20770,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Assessment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Psychological Assessment","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0001241","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/6/8 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of college students was investigated in a cross-sectional design using the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991, 2007). Three large samples of college students were recruited for research purposes and given standard instructions: 825 students from two universities assessed in the 2021-2022 academic year (postpandemic), 558 students from three universities assessed between 2016 and 2019 (prepandemic), and 1,051 students from seven universities assessed in 1989 and 1990 (college norms). Comparisons of PAI scores with the prepandemic cohort revealed several significantly higher scores in the postpandemic cohort, especially for scales related to anxiety and depression. Comparisons with the college norms revealed significantly higher scores on several PAI scales in the prepandemic cohort, and these differences were largest for scales related to anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms. PAI scales related to impulsivity, alcohol use, and other behavior problems showed no changes or decline from earlier to later cohorts. Taken together, the findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified problems with anxiety and depression that existed before the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
期刊介绍:
Psychological Assessment is concerned mainly with empirical research on measurement and evaluation relevant to the broad field of clinical psychology. Submissions are welcome in the areas of assessment processes and methods. Included are - clinical judgment and the application of decision-making models - paradigms derived from basic psychological research in cognition, personality–social psychology, and biological psychology - development, validation, and application of assessment instruments, observational methods, and interviews