Look After Yourself: Students Consistently Showing High Resilience Engaged in More Self-Care and Proved More Resilient During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted severe restrictions on everyday life to curb the spread of infections. For example, teaching at universities has been switched to an online format, reducing students' opportunities for exchange, and social interaction. Consequently, their self-reported mental...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.784381/full |
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| author | Laura E. Meine Laura E. Meine Laura E. Meine Eike Strömer Sandra Schönfelder Eliza I. Eckhardt Anna K. Bergmann Michèle Wessa Michèle Wessa |
| author_facet | Laura E. Meine Laura E. Meine Laura E. Meine Eike Strömer Sandra Schönfelder Eliza I. Eckhardt Anna K. Bergmann Michèle Wessa Michèle Wessa |
| author_sort | Laura E. Meine |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted severe restrictions on everyday life to curb the spread of infections. For example, teaching at universities has been switched to an online format, reducing students' opportunities for exchange, and social interaction. Consequently, their self-reported mental health has significantly decreased and there is a pressing need to elucidate the underlying mechanisms—ideally considering not only data collected during the pandemic, but also before. One hundred seventeen German university students aged 18-27 were assessed for known resilience factors (optimism, self-care, social support, generalized self-efficacy) and subsequently completed surveys on stress experiences and mental health every 3 months over a period of 9 months before the outbreak of the pandemic and once during the first lockdown in Germany. For each timepoint before the pandemic, we regressed participants' mental health against the reported stressor load, such that the resulting residuals denote better or worse than expected outcomes, i.e., the degree of resilient functioning. We then tested whether different expressions in the resilience factors were predictive of distinct resilient functioning trajectories, which were identified through latent class growth analysis. Finally, we investigated whether trajectory class, resilience factors, and perceived stress predicted resilience during the pandemic. Results show rather stable resilient functioning trajectories, with classes differing mainly according to degree rather than change over time. More self-care was associated with a higher resilient functioning trajectory, which in turn was linked with the most favorable pandemic response (i.e., lower perceived stress and more self-care). Although findings should be interpreted with caution given the rather small sample size, they represent a rare examination of established resilience factors in relation to resilience over an extended period and highlight the relevance of self-care in coping with real-life stressors such as the pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T18:39:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f411757ab0bd4ab296a8f3ac04c26c17 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-0640 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T18:39:11Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
| spelling | doaj.art-f411757ab0bd4ab296a8f3ac04c26c172022-12-22T04:09:04ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychiatry1664-06402021-12-011210.3389/fpsyt.2021.784381784381Look After Yourself: Students Consistently Showing High Resilience Engaged in More Self-Care and Proved More Resilient During the COVID-19 PandemicLaura E. Meine0Laura E. Meine1Laura E. Meine2Eike Strömer3Sandra Schönfelder4Eliza I. Eckhardt5Anna K. Bergmann6Michèle Wessa7Michèle Wessa8Department of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandDepartment of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandLeibniz Institute for Resilience Research, Research Group Wessa, Mainz, GermanyLeibniz Institute for Resilience Research, Research Group Wessa, Mainz, GermanyLeibniz Institute for Resilience Research, Research Group Wessa, Mainz, GermanyLeibniz Institute for Resilience Research, Research Group Wessa, Mainz, GermanyDepartment of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, GermanyLeibniz Institute for Resilience Research, Research Group Wessa, Mainz, GermanyThe COVID-19 pandemic has prompted severe restrictions on everyday life to curb the spread of infections. For example, teaching at universities has been switched to an online format, reducing students' opportunities for exchange, and social interaction. Consequently, their self-reported mental health has significantly decreased and there is a pressing need to elucidate the underlying mechanisms—ideally considering not only data collected during the pandemic, but also before. One hundred seventeen German university students aged 18-27 were assessed for known resilience factors (optimism, self-care, social support, generalized self-efficacy) and subsequently completed surveys on stress experiences and mental health every 3 months over a period of 9 months before the outbreak of the pandemic and once during the first lockdown in Germany. For each timepoint before the pandemic, we regressed participants' mental health against the reported stressor load, such that the resulting residuals denote better or worse than expected outcomes, i.e., the degree of resilient functioning. We then tested whether different expressions in the resilience factors were predictive of distinct resilient functioning trajectories, which were identified through latent class growth analysis. Finally, we investigated whether trajectory class, resilience factors, and perceived stress predicted resilience during the pandemic. Results show rather stable resilient functioning trajectories, with classes differing mainly according to degree rather than change over time. More self-care was associated with a higher resilient functioning trajectory, which in turn was linked with the most favorable pandemic response (i.e., lower perceived stress and more self-care). Although findings should be interpreted with caution given the rather small sample size, they represent a rare examination of established resilience factors in relation to resilience over an extended period and highlight the relevance of self-care in coping with real-life stressors such as the pandemic.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.784381/fullself-carelatent class growth analysisresilienceCOVID-19 pandemicmental health |
| spellingShingle | Laura E. Meine Laura E. Meine Laura E. Meine Eike Strömer Sandra Schönfelder Eliza I. Eckhardt Anna K. Bergmann Michèle Wessa Michèle Wessa Look After Yourself: Students Consistently Showing High Resilience Engaged in More Self-Care and Proved More Resilient During the COVID-19 Pandemic Frontiers in Psychiatry self-care latent class growth analysis resilience COVID-19 pandemic mental health |
| title | Look After Yourself: Students Consistently Showing High Resilience Engaged in More Self-Care and Proved More Resilient During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_full | Look After Yourself: Students Consistently Showing High Resilience Engaged in More Self-Care and Proved More Resilient During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Look After Yourself: Students Consistently Showing High Resilience Engaged in More Self-Care and Proved More Resilient During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Look After Yourself: Students Consistently Showing High Resilience Engaged in More Self-Care and Proved More Resilient During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_short | Look After Yourself: Students Consistently Showing High Resilience Engaged in More Self-Care and Proved More Resilient During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_sort | look after yourself students consistently showing high resilience engaged in more self care and proved more resilient during the covid 19 pandemic |
| topic | self-care latent class growth analysis resilience COVID-19 pandemic mental health |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.784381/full |
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