The Mental Health of University Students and the Impact of Year of Study, Self-Care Habits, Hobbies, and COVID-19

Honours Thesis Results

Jennifer Reeves, 2021

Background: The mental health of university students is impacted by a variety of factors. Students in each of the four years of study likely experience different mental health concerns, as each year has unique stressors and responsibilities. Past research has indicated that self-care habits (including emotion regulation, mindfulness, social support, sleep, and exercise) play a protective role in mental health. Students may also engage in both academic hobbies (library use, office hours attendance, participation in academic organizations or research, and studying) and recreation hobbies (playing games, watching videos, participating in athletics, or partying), which likely have an impact on their mental health. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has likely affected students in Canada. The aim of this research was to examine the mental health of university students in Canada, and to investigate the impact of year of study, self-care habits, hobbies, and COVID-19.

Methods: University students were recruited from across Canada, primarily through social media. All participants completed an online survey. Subsequently, data was analyzed with structural equation modeling, with each year of study analyzed in separate models.

Results: In total, 1192 university students in Canada participated in this study. Many students reported struggling with mental health, as 29% of students reported extremely severe anxiety symptoms, 24% extremely severe levels of depressive symptoms, and 7% extremely severe stress. In comparison, a study conducted in 2015 in the US by Beiter and colleagues found these rates to be 8%, 5%, and 3%, respectively. This difference is likely due to the pandemic, as COVID-19 had an effect on overall levels of experienced mental health difficulties in our study.

Further analyses indicated that throughout the four years, self-care directly impacted mental health, such that engaging in more self-care activities was associated with lower levels of experienced anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms. The role of hobbies varied, in that having more academically focused hobbies was associated with greater experience of mental health symptoms for freshmen, sophomores, and seniors. Unexpectedly, recreation hobbies did not have a direct effect on mental health, but instead these were associated with increased self-care activities for freshmen and seniors. This makes intuitive sense, as many recreational activities may be associated with self-care activities and taking time away from studies for oneself.

Takeaways: Our findings indicated that self-care habits can be one way that students can support their mental well-being. For example, when you find a situation to be stressful, you can try to re-evaluate the situation and view it in a more positive way. Another thing that students can do is to try to maintain a regular sleep schedule, such as trying to get 8 hours of sleep every night. Another helpful habit can be mindfulness, as you can put aside a few minutes a day to be mindful, where you reflect on what you’re feeling without judging yourself. Overall, it is important to practice self-care habits, especially during stressful times. 

Resources

Mental health:

  • Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of British Columbia. Call 1-800-784-2433 (1-800-Suicide) or visit http://crisiscentre.bc.ca

Mindfulness

Emotion regulation strategies