Mental Health of Students During COVID-19

Slides by Kaitlyn Grimes

Mental health is an important topic to talk about, especially for college students. From schoolwork to motivation and concentration, it can put quite a bit of stress on students. However, with the pandemic occurring last March, everything has changed dramatically. Transitioning to online schooling and remaining home is sure to take its toll on students, so I am focusing my project on the impact of COVID-19 on mental health towards college students. My main focus for this project is determining whether COVID-19 has worsened or lessened the effect of mental health issues, as well as who’s mostly affected by it and applying it here at Purdue.

Continuing schooling online instead of in person has been difficult to transition to for students, especially if they are returning home. With lack of social interaction, remaining home, and looking at a computer screen for prolonged periods of time, it can be difficult to remain motivated and keep up with schoolwork. Instead of waking up and getting ready for the day to attend class(es), students are merely waking up minutes before a Zoom meeting in pajamas. This especially causes a decrease in motivation, however the stress to maintain good grades and keeping up with the class begins to increase. For those living at home, it can be a highly distractive environment from interruptions from family, an abusive home environment, and a place to relax than study.

I have chosen to display the effects of COVID-19 on mental health towards college students via PowerPoint with voice recordings. Within the slides, I have included 2 articles describing different factors that have negatively affected students while completing school online, as well as who is affected the most. I have also included a website including the different symptoms of mental health diagnoses and Purdue’s monthly statistics. Along with that, I have found issues around Purdue from false reports of suicide to student gatherings addressing the issue that Purdue isn’t supplying the required assistance for its students. They gave a list of demands of what they would like Purdue to provide from accountability from professors to the way in which mental health is handled Furthermore, the evidence I have found is that students mental health has drastically increased, from stress, depression, difficulty concentrating, disruptions in eating and sleeping patterns, changes in living environment, and more. Overall, the research I have completed has shown negative effects of COVID-19 towards mental health and college students and there are topics needed to be addressed at Purdue to help resolve further mental health issues among its students. Mental health is an important topic and needs to be addressed at all schools during a difficult school year with the pandemic.

Bibliography

Bills, M. (2020, November 20). Purdue students: ‘we are crying out for help but OUR plea is falling on deaf ears.’ Retrieved April, 2021, from https://www.wlfi.com/content/news/Purdue-students-sit-in-at–573141151.html

Chirikov, I., Soria, K. M, Horgos, B., & Jones-White, D. (2020). Undergraduate and Graduate Students’ Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic. UC Berkeley: Center for Studies in Higher Education. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/80k5d5hw

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health#symptoms

Son, C., Hegde, S., Smith, A., Wang, X., & Sasangohar, F. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on College Students’ Mental Health in the United States: Interview Survey Study. Journal of medical Internet research, 22(9), e21279. https://doi.org/10.2196/21279

Purdue University. (n.d.). Monthly statistics for present year. Retrieved April, 2021, from https://www.purdue.edu/ehps/police/assistance/stats/statsmonth.html