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. 2021 Nov 22;11(1):22637.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02024-5.

The impact of lockdown stress and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health among university students in Germany

Antonia M Werner  1 , Ana N Tibubos  2 , Lina M Mülder  3 , Jennifer L Reichel  4 , Markus Schäfer  5 , Sebastian Heller  4 , Daniel Pfirrmann  6 , Dennis Edelmann  6 , Pavel Dietz  4 , Thomas Rigotti  3   7 , Manfred E Beutel  2
Affiliations

The impact of lockdown stress and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health among university students in Germany

Antonia M Werner et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a shutdown of universities in Germany. In a longitudinal design, we compared mental health (depression, anxiety, somatic complaints) of university students in Germany before (June to August 2019) and in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020) and determined the impact of pandemic-related stress and loneliness on students' mental health in self-report online surveys. We investigated 443 participants (mean age 22.8 years), among them 77% female, and 10.4% medical students. A small increase of depression mean scores was observed (F(1,420) = 5.21; p = .023), anxiety and somatic complaints have not significantly changed. There was a medium increase in loneliness from pre-pandemic scores to the pandemic situation (F(1,423) = 30.56; p < .001). Analyzed with regression analyses, current loneliness and pre-pandemic distress represented the strongest associations with mental health during the pandemic. Additionally, health-related concerns during the pandemic were associated with symptoms of depression [b = 0.21; 95%CI(0.08; 0.34); t = 3.12; p = .002], anxiety [b = 0.07; 95%CI(0.01; 0.12); t = 2.50; p = .013], somatic complaints [b = 0.33; 95%CI(0.18; 0.47); t = 4.49; p < .001], and loneliness [b = 0.10; 95%CI(0.03; 0.17); t = 2.74; p = .006]. Social stress due to the pandemic situation was associated with loneliness [b = 0.38; 95%CI(0.32; 0.45); t = 11.75; p < .001]. The results imply that university students represent a risk group for psychosocial long-term ramifications of the pandemic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Anxiety predicted by time (before vs. during pandemic) and gender (male vs. female). Note F(1,421) = 5.03, p = .025, small effect size.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Social stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic reported by university students in June 2020 (N = 443). (b) Health issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic reported by university students in June 2020 (N = 443). Note. Participants answered five questions on pandemic-related items. Answers between 1 and 4 were assigned to “no agreement” = 0, and answers between 5 and 7 “agreement” = 1 on the 7-point Likert-Scale; answer options 1 and 2 indicated “no or little” = 0 and answers from 3 to 5 “at least moderate” perceived stress/wish for psychological support = 1 on the 5-point Likert-Scale, respectively. Scoring was in accordance with the answer options of the item.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Adherence to pandemic containment measures during the COVID-19 pandemic reported by university students in June 2020 (N = 443).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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