Mental Health Symptoms Among US College Students Before, Early, and Late Into the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Analysis.

Purpose: To study how COVID-19 stress-related factors and changes in psychosocial resources during the pandemic contributed to changes in mental health symptoms among first-year college students during the pandemic.

Methods: Using data on 339 first-year students (ages 18-20) at a large public university in North Carolina, we evaluated changes in anxiety and depression symptoms from before to early and later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we estimated longitudinal associations of chronic stress, COVID-19 stress/stressors and psychosocial resources with anxiety and depression symptoms using a first-difference model.