“At the height of the pandemic last year, in the midst of lockdowns and school closures, I would hear news about college students in general and how they were being affected, but nothing about international students, who usually experience more stressors than local college students,” Chinyere Reid, a doctoral candidate at the USF College of Public Health (COPH) said. “I was interested to know how they were being psychologically impacted by COVID-19, what their specific stressors were and how they were coping during the pandemic.”

To find out, Reid—who is an international student from Jamaica— surveyed 223 international undergraduate and graduate students at USF and presented her research at the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) annual meeting. The research, titled “The influence of COVID-19 stress on anxiety and depression in international students during the COVID-19 pandemic,” was conducted with the help of the COPH’s Dr. Abraham Salinas-Miranda, an assistant professor, and associate professor Dr. Jason Beckstead.

Reid, who is concentrating in community and family health, looked at COVID-19 stress (for example, stress over acquiring the virus and experiencing food and supply shortages) and global stress (stress about jobs, finances, relationships, etc.).

The students Reid surveyed were both undergraduate and graduate international students who were mostly 18-24 years old, female and single. 

Surprisingly, Reid found that anxiety scores were higher in undergraduates versus graduate international students.

“Generally, we assume graduate students are more likely to experience more stressful situations than undergraduate students,” Reid noted. “This is because they may be more likely to have jobs and families and are more knowledgeable about resources. However, in our study, we found that undergraduate international students reported greater stress and anxiety during the pandemic.”

What wasn’t so surprising? That as COVID-19 stress mounted in the students, so did depression and anxiety. 

“Findings of this research highlight that overall, international students have suffered from COVID-19 stress, which is associated with increased anxiety and depression,” Reid commented. “I hope that this study will benefit international students and those who provide them services here at USF and in other colleges/universities across the United States. The APHA presentation evoked many questions and discussions about meeting the needs of international college students affected by COVID-19 stress and the role of universities and other communities at-large in addressing this issue and supporting students.”

Reid said the results of the study have been shared with the USF Office of International Services (OIS), whom she partnered with to recruit students. 

“They were very eager to hear the study results (which also showed that OIS was the most utilized campus resource by international students during the pandemic) and will use study findings to evaluate and provide additional support and mental health resources for international students,” she said. “The next steps will be to focus on identifying and understanding coping mechanisms international college students use to manage COVID-19-related stress and the role of social support with their mental health. Ideally, it would be great to do a longitudinal study on these students to examine the effects of COVID-19 stress on their mental health beyond the pandemic.”

Story by Donna Campisano for USF College of Public Health