The Influence of Covid-19 on College Students' Anxiety

Presenter Information

Lauren Eckert, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
Whitney Sumihi, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Ariana Jacobs, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Annie Grund, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Cooper Fuller, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Kathleen Ristau, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Peyton Primmer, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU Ballroom

Start Date

12-4-2022 10:00 AM

End Date

12-4-2022 11:30 AM

Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentor's Name

Emily Stark

Mentor's Department

Psychology

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Description

COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has had an effect on every demographic group. College students are not only coping with the stress of school work, extra curriculars, and other factors but also COVID-19 which has had a sizeable effect on college-age individuals. At the start of the pandemic, a large number of college students were uprooted from their day to day lives and forced to move back home which caused loss of socialization among peers. There have been many serious lifestyle changes that have had to occur with the pandemic. Because of these changes, numbers have risen in anxiety and depression. As COVID-19 is still relevant in our world today, we felt it was important to attempt to understand the impact it has on the life of a college student, along with any impacts it may have on other aspects of life. Therefore, this study will be aiming to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has increased or decreased the levels of anxiety in college students via a survey measuring behaviors related to their academic and everyday lives. This can allow for a better understanding of current anxiety in students, which will make it easier to accommodate and communicate with students in these circumstances. We hope to assist in the growth of knowledge surrounding anxiety and the overall mental health impact of COVID-19 by surveying college-aged individuals on concepts unique to us, such as motivation levels, isolation, and anxiety levels associated with different methods of teaching. We hypothesize that the college students who have increased anxiety due to COVID-19 will also report lower motivation and less achievement in academics, compared to participants who did not appear to have increased anxiety. The analysis will aid us in understanding the relationship between anxiety and COVID-19 in current students at our university.