COVID-19 and Mental Health of College-age Young Adults in China

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

In December 2019, China reported an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the city of Wuhan. Since then, COVID-19 has quickly spread around the world. With college students returning home and living with their parents, how the pandemic affected family finances, parent-young adult child interactions, and the health of young adult children, has become of importance (e.g., Ornell, et al., 2020). Based on family systems theory (Broderick, 1993) and family stress model (Conger & Conger, 2002), as well as recent studies of COVID-19 in China (e.g., Cao et al., 2020), we hypothesized that COVID-19 caused economic hardship would be related to higher levels of family economic pressure, family economic pressure would then be related to difficulties in parent-young adult child interactions in the family, which in turn, associated with college-age children’s symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Participants were college students recruited from 21 universities in China during COVID-19. Students were sent a Qualtrics survey link inviting them to participate in an online survey. A total of 484 students participated and provided information on COVID-19 related variables in this study. The age range was 18 to 26 years old (M = 20.21, SD = 1.33), about one third were male, and over 90% were from two-parent families.

Measures included COVID-19 caused economic hardship (Conger & Conger, 2002), economic pressure (Conger & Conger, 2002), negative parent-child interactions (assessed by 10 items on problems and difficulties in parent-child interactions during COVID-19, α = .79), and mental health as a latent construct with indicators of anxiety and depressive symptoms - the 10-item Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988; α = .88) and the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression (CES-D) scale (Radloff, 1977; α = .86). Theoretically relevant covariates (i.e., age, gender, family structure, family SES, and living arrangement) were also assessed.

Descriptive statistics suggested that during COVID-19, almost all college students (97.9%) lived with their parent(s), 40.5% reported family income decreased to some degree and 6.0% decreased a lot. Over two thirds (72.5%) of participants reported varying degrees of economic pressure.

To test the hypothesis, structural equation modeling with full information maximum likelihood was used (including significant covariates, Figure 1). The model produced an excellent fit. COVID-19 caused economic hardship was positively and significantly related to economic pressure (.39, p < .01), which was positively and significantly related to negative parent-child interactions (.25, p < .01). Negative parent-child interactions were positively related to mental health problems (.45, p < .01). No significant direct paths were found between economic hardship and parent-child interactions and mental health, or between economic pressure and mental health. Regarding the covariates, two-parent family structure and higher family SES were both negatively related to economic pressure.

The findings suggested the prevalence of economic hardship and pressure experienced in Chinese families and the subsequent negative effects on parent-child interaction and young adult children’s mental health. Future studies are needed to use longitudinal design to examine the long-term consequences and resilience factors.

Authors

• Peipei Hong, Zhejiang University
  Presenting Author

• Ming Cui, Florida State University
  Non-Presenting Author