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Mental Health and Behavior of College Students During the Early Phases of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Smartphone and Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Journal of Medical Internet Research · 2020 · Vol. 22(6) · pp. e20185–e20185

Jeremy F. Huckins✉(Dartmouth College)Alex W DaSilva(Dartmouth College)Weichen Wang(Dartmouth College)Elin Hedlund(Dartmouth College)Courtney Rogers(Dartmouth College)Subigya Nepal(Dartmouth College)Jialing Wu(Dartmouth College)Mikio Obuchi(Dartmouth College)Eilis I Murphy(Dartmouth College)Meghan L. Meyer(Dartmouth College)Dylan D. Wagner(The Ohio State University)Paul E. Holtzheimer(Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center)Andrew T. Campbell(Dartmouth College)

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Abstract

Compared with prior academic terms, individuals in the Winter 2020 term were more sedentary, anxious, and depressed. A wide variety of behaviors, including increased phone usage, decreased physical activity, and fewer locations visited, were associated with fluctuations in COVID-19 news reporting. While this large-scale shift in mental health and behavior is unsurprising, its characterization is particularly important to help guide the development of methods to reduce the impact of future catastrophic events on the mental health of the population.

COVID-19 and Mental Health Digital Mental Health Interventions Mental Health Research TopicsMental healthAnxietyPandemicPhoneLongitudinal studyExperience sampling methodDepression (economics)PsychologyMobile phonemHealth

MeSH terms

SmartphoneEcological Momentary AssessmentBetacoronavirusCOVID-19SARS-CoV-2AdolescentAdultFemaleHumansLongitudinal StudiesMaleMental HealthPneumonia, ViralStudentsCoronavirus Infections