Ph.D. in Public Health candidate Elaine Russell and her mentor Kenneth Griffin, professor in the department of Global and Community Health, in George Mason University's College of Public Health, worked with Tolulope Abidogun, also a Ph.
D. in Public Health student, and former Global and Community Health professor Lisa Lindley, now of Lehigh University, to analyze data from the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA III) in an effort to understand how university students' mental health needs changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on university students' psychological distress, well-being, and utilization of mental health services in the United States: Populations at greatest risk" was published online in Frontiers in Public Health on October 30, 2024.
"More U.S. college students suffered from mental health concerns during the pandemic, but fewer received necessary mental health treatment," says Russell.
This study is the first to use a national dataset to examine changes in university students' psychological well-being and their utilization of mental health services from pre-COVID-19 to peak pandemic. Russell and the research team found that, consistent with prior research related to diverse populations, racial/ethnic, gender, and sexual minority groups were at a greater risk of suffering from poor mental health during the pandemic. Additional findings revealed that during the pandemic, students of color.