Change in University Student Health Behaviours after the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

How traditional undergraduate college students define and perceive wellness: A qualitative phenomenological study

OBJECTIVE

To understand college students' perceptions and understanding of wellness.

PARTICIPANTS

A convenience sample of 20 undergraduate students (age 20.6 ± 2.2 years) at a private liberal arts university in Southern California who recently completed a general education health and wellness course.

METHOD

Five focus group sessions were conducted to explore perceptions of wellness among undergraduate college students. Data was analyzed, themed, and coded.

RESULTS

A thematic analysis of the descriptions of wellness revealed 2 higher-ordered themes as whole-person and wellbeing, and 3 lower-ordered themes of balance, interconnectedness, and personalized in relation to participants' understanding of wellness.

CONCLUSIONS

The importance of balance between wellness dimensions and the acknowledgment of the interconnectedness of wellness dimensions are related to quality of life and life satisfaction. A deeper insight is needed to better understand the perceptions of wellness in this population to provide more effective interventions. This can be achieved through the development of enhanced pedagogy, which may improve student health.

A comparative study of subjective well-being, interpersonal relationship and love forgiveness among Chinese college students before and after the COVID-19 epidemic

During the period that COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, Chinese universities have adopted a new teaching method combining online and offline and banned students from entering and leaving campus at will in line with the epidemic prevention policy. As a result, college students' learning and life styles have been greatly changed. In order to explore how the epidemic and specific prevention policies have influenced the psychology and behavior of Chinese college students, this study used three questionnaires of college students' subjective well-being, interpersonal relationship and love forgiveness to collect the data after the epidemic and compared with the data of college students before the epidemic. The result showed that before and after the epidemic, college students had obvious changes in their level of interpersonal relationship, subjective well-being and love forgiveness. Relationships among the three variables had changed. Meanwhile, the demographic variables of college students had certain changes in the three questionnaires. College students with and without romantic experience also had significant differences in the three questionnaires. It can be seen that the epidemic and specific prevention policies have a certain impact on the physical and mental health of college students, and there is also a gap in the forgiveness level of college students with and without romantic experience. These findings remind relevant departments that it should give greater consideration to the physical and mental health of college students, provide some references for dealing with new outbreaks and formulating the epidemic prevention policies subsequently, and suggest psychological counselors to change the way of dealing with the intimate relationship of college students.

The Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Alcohol Abuse and Drunkorexia Behaviors in Young Adults

The COVID-19 outbreak negatively affected young adults' psychological well-being, increasing their stress levels and symptoms of anxiety and depression, and potentially triggering health-risk behaviors. The present study was aimed at investigating the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol abuse and drunkorexia behaviors among young adults living in Italy. Participants were 370 emerging adults (63% women, 37% men; Mage = 21.00, SDage = 2.96, range: 18-30) who were recruited through an online survey between November 2021 and March 2022. Participants completed measures of alcohol abuse, drunkorexia behaviors, negative life experiences, and post-traumatic symptoms related to the COVID-19 outbreak. The results showed that the emotional impact and negative life experiences associated with the pandemic predicted both alcohol abuse and drunkorexia behaviors, albeit in different ways. Specifically, the number of negative life experiences during the pandemic and the tendency to avoid COVID-19-related negative thoughts positively predicted alcohol abuse; and the presence of intrusive thoughts associated with the pandemic significantly predicted the frequency of drunkorexia behaviors. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.