College students who shifted to online courses during the pandemic experienced “higher levels of psychological distress” than students who kept attending in person, a recent study found.
Among 59,250 full-time undergraduates who completed an online mental health screening from January to June 2021, 61.2% studied virtually and 35.5% attended a mix of in-person and online classes, according to the study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open.
Both were likelier to report anxiety and depression than the 3.5.% of four-year students who reported attending school fully in person at the time, the research found.
A team of researchers from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital conducted the study.