Ayanna Cade
ENGL 1102
Major Project 4
April 16th, 2022
Introduction
The pandemic has caused many issues for college students. Depression, anxiety, insomnia and online classes due to the pandemic has caused trouble for college students. College students must worry about their selves and their loved ones catching covid. The Topic for this research paper is how does college students’ depression, anxiety, insomnia and how has online classes due to the pandemic affect their academic performance?
The pandemic has caused depression, anxiety, insomnia, lack of motivation, etc. in college students. Covid 19 has added more reasons why college students are stressed. According to Mindy M. Kibbey in her article “Anxiety, depression, and health anxiety in undergraduate students living in initial US outbreak hotspot during Covid-19 pandemic” college students have consistently elevated psychological distress because of the pandemic (Kibbey 1). Kibbey started a study on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health undergraduates in a heavily populated area in the United States (Kibbey 1). Kibbey addresses that half of the students reported that they had higher levels of health anxiety, general anxiety, and depression (Kibbey 1). Kibbey claims that “college students stress about unexpected displacing due to closing of university housing, losing jobs, no social networks, uncertain academic future, and online learning” which increases their depression and anxiety (Kibbey 1). This is immensely important because some college students live in university housing and have nowhere else to go. Those students that live in university housing unexpectedly had to leave without a warning which could be hard on many students. College is expensive and students lost their jobs which caused more stress on them.
In the article “Assessing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Nontraditional Student’s Mental Health and Well – Being” Stephanie Babb stated that 30% of college students reported that their depression affected their personal lives and academic performance before the pandemic but, these rates have increased due to the pandemic (Babb 1). “71% of students indicated they had increased levels of stress, depressive thoughts, and anxiety due to the pandemic” (Babb 1). “35% of undergraduate students screened positive for major depressive disorder” (Babb 1). Babb adds that insomnia is an issue for college students that could lead to depression and affect their academic performance (Babb 1). Insomnia can negatively affect college students’ depression, academic performance and anxiety. “Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall asleep, hard to stay asleep, or cause you to wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep”. According to Babb, 60% of college students have poor sleep quality and over 7% meet the criteria for insomnia (Babb 1). Babb believes that insomnia for college students leads to low GPAs and poor academic performance such as dropping classes (1).
Many college students’ academic performance has been affected by depression, anxiety, and insomnia due to the pandemic. Jose Ventura – Leon argues in his article “ Depression, Covid-19 Anxiety, Subjective well-being, and academic performance in University Students with Covid-19 Infected Relatives: A Network Analysis that the symptoms of anxiety and depression negatively affect college student’s academic performance. Ventura states that many students’ concerns about their academic performance can also cause depression and anxiety in college students (Ventura 1). Students’ academic performance can be positively or negatively affected by remote teaching due to the pandemic (Ventura 1). Ventura acknowledges that University students’ academic performance could be affected by remote learning due to limitations in acquiring the necessary technology and/or having adequate digital connections (Ventura 1).
The pandemic caused in-person classes to transition to online classes. Online learning can certainly affect a student’s academic performance. This transition can be a huge adjustment for a lot of students. In the article “Higher education students experience and opinion about distance learning during the covid-19 pandemic “ Aleksandra Stevanoic emphasizes that there is a negative correlation between online classes during the pandemic (Stevanoic 1). Some of the negative things college students experienced during online learning are “academic stress, fear of failure, feelings of boredom, and depressive thoughts that distracted students from academic and creative activities” (Stevanoic 1). There are pros and cons to online learning. Some of the pros Stevanoic points out are better time management, better for students who cannot come to class due to health reasons, employment, etc, and it’s easier for some students to attend class from a computer (Stevanoic 1). Some of the cons that Stevanoic pointed out are lack of motivation, increased anxiety, depressive thoughts, technical problems, etc (Stevanoic 1).
Melissa Ezarik added in her article “How Covid 19 Damaged Student Success “ a student voice survey that included 2,000 college students from 108 institutions which were conducted by Higher Ed and presented by Kaplan. According to Kaplan, 47% of students would rate the value of their education this year as fair or poor, 52% of students said they learned less this year, 23% of freshmen felt unprepared, 35% felt somewhat unprepared, and 47% of students said that cheating is common in online classes (Ezarik 1). Ezarik also points out that 46% of students felt like they are taking more time to complete online assignments (Ezarik 1). Donde Plowman, the chancellor of the University of Tennessee states “I heard repeatedly, I’ve had to work so much harder” from students (Ezarik 1). Ezarik implies that it’s easier to lose focus during online classes (Ezarik 1). Eight out of ten students found it difficult to concentrate during online classes but there are a few students who prefer online learning. According to Ezarik Student Watch research from the National Association of College Students found that students over the age of 35 were more satisfied with online learning (Ezarik 1). There are other worries that the pandemic added to college students. For example, Ezarik addresses that a student could not concentrate because her uncle had COVID-19. Two football players expressed the pressure they felt during the pandemic. They had worries of catching the virus and worries of having to meet academic requirements.
Students now worry more about their academic performance due to the pandemic. Students are now dealing with insomnia, longer assignments, depressive thoughts and worries about getting Covid 19. The pandemic made online classes a huge thing which caused more problems with students’ academic success. Students are learning less, unprepared and not concentrated. Students are feeling bored and having fears of failing. After doing this research there should be more programs to help college students get through this pandemic.
Works Cited
Babb, Stephanie J., et al. “Assessing the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nontraditional Students’ Mental Health and Well-Being.” Adult Education Quarterly, vol. 72, no. 2, May 2022, pp. 140–57. EBSCOhost https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07417136211027508
Stevanović, Aleksandra, et al. “Higher Education Students’ Experiences and Opinion about Distance Learning during the Covid‐19 Pandemic.” Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, vol. 37, no. 6, Dec. 2021, pp. 1682–93. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12613.
Mindy M. Kibbey. “Anxiety, Depression, and Health Anxiety in Undergraduate Students Living in Initial US Outbreak ‘Hotspot’ during Covid-19 Pandemic.” Taylor & Francis, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16506073.2020.1853805.
Ventura-León, José, et al. “Depression, Covid-19 Anxiety, Subjective Well-Being, and Academic Performance in University Students with Covid-19-Infected Relatives: A Network Analysis.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 1 Jan. 1AD, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.837606/full
What Worked and What Didn’t for College Students Learning through COVID-19, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/21/what-worked-and-what-didn%E2%80%99t-college-students-learning-through-covid-19