COVID-19 Lockdowns, Mental Health and Wellbeing in Undergraduate Students, 2020-2022

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on mental health; because students are particularly vulnerable to loneliness, isolation, stress and unhealthy lifestyle choices, their mental health and wellbeing may potentially be more severely impacted by lockdown measures than the general population. This study assessed the mental health and wellbeing of UK undergraduate students during and after the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected via online questionnaire at 3 time points – during the latter part of the first wave of the pandemic (spring/summer 2020; n=46) while stringent lockdown measures were still in place but gradually being relaxed; during the second wave of the pandemic (winter 2020-21; n=86) while local lockdowns were in place across the UK; and during the winter of 2021-22 (n=77), when infection rates were high but no lockdown measures were in place. Stress was found to most strongly predict wellbeing and mental health measures during the two pandemic waves. Other substantial predictors were diet quality and intolerance of uncertainty. Positive wellbeing was the least well accounted for of our outcome variables. Conversely, we found that depression and anxiety were higher during winter 2021-22 (no lockdowns) than winter 2020-21 (under lockdown). This may be due to the high rates of infection over that period and the effects of COVID-19 infection itself on mental health. This suggests that, as significant as the effects of lockdowns were on the wellbeing of the nation, not implementing lockdown measures could potentially have been even more detrimental for mental health.