Attitudes and Experience During the Coronavirus Pandemic

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The Project

This research project was completed as part of my master’s thesis. The full PowerPoint presentation can be found here. The goal of this project was to examine the emerging association between COVID-19 and the mental health of college students in the United States and Denmark. As such, this was a research-only project. I largely worked independently with occasional consultation with my supervisor and an external expert in Denmark. 

The Objective

This research began during the early stages of the the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers around the world were calling for more work to be done on the pandemics association with mental health. As such, this work had begun to be conducted; however, at the time, no research was being conducted cross-culturally. I developed the present project to address this gap in the existing literature. In particular, I aimed to examine the role of social support, social identity, and ethnic identity on mental health outcomes within the context of the pandemic. Three hypotheses were tested with a U.S. and Danish sample:

1. COVID-19 stress would predict lower levels in the fundamental four (belongingness, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence) during the pandemic.
2. Social support would act as a mediator between COVID-19 stress and negative mental health outcomes.
3. Social identity and ethnic identity would mediate the relationship between COVID-19 stress and mental health outcomes.

The Work

Research plan:

I began the project by conducting an in-depth review of the existing literature on COVID-19 and past epidemics (i.e., SARS, MERS, etc.). Next, I examined various theoretical frameworks that could explain the relationship between COVID-19 and mental health outcomes. Once I had a sound understanding of the existing literature, I formulated my hypotheses and began to conduct the research. This was necessary to ensure a high level of scientific rigor. I occasionally met with my supervisor to discuss the progress of this project and gain their insight.

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Method:

Participants were asked to complete a series of surveys on Qualtrics. The surveys were already used in the literature and had evidence for reliability and validity. The demographics questionnaire changed slightly depending on the nation.

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Participants:

Participants consisted of college-aged students in the U.S. and Denmark. The U.S. participants were compensated with research credit for their course work. The Danish participants were entered into a raffle. The external expert in Denmark helped to ensure data collection was consistent with cultural standards in the country.

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Data Analysis:

Data was analyzed in R. A variety of methods were implemented including Bayesian inferencing, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. Prior research had demonstrated that these methods were appropriate given the data structure and hypotheses.

The End Result

Most notably, the results of this research indicated that stress related to COVID-19 was significantly associated with lower levels of one’s sense of belongingness and self-esteem. The association between COVID-19 and self-esteem was twice as strong in the Danish sample compared to the U.S. sample. These findings are particularly useful to clinicians and university administrators as they address the mental health of students in the wake of the pandemic. Additionally, this filled a gap in the literature with information on the cross-cultural impact of the pandemic.