Fluctuations in behavior and affect in college students measured using deep phenotyping.

College students commonly experience psychological distress when faced with intensified academic demands and changes in the social environment. Examining the nature and dynamics of students’ affective and behavioral experiences can help us better characterize the correlates of psychological distress. Here, we leveraged wearables and smartphones to study 49 first-year college students continuously throughout the academic year. Affect and sleep, academic, and social behavior showed substantial changes from school semesters to school breaks and from weekdays to weekends. Three student clusters were identified with behavioral and affective dissociations and varying levels of distress throughout the year. While academics were a common stressor for all, the cluster with highest distress stood out by frequent report of social stress. Moreover, the frequency of reporting social, but not academic, stress predicted subsequent clinical symptoms. Two years later, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the first-year cluster with highest distress again stood out by frequent social stress and elevated clinical symptoms. Focus on sustained interpersonal stress, relative to academic stress, might be especially helpful to identify students at heightened risk for psychopathology.

大学生在面临学业要求提高和社会环境变化时，通常会经历心理困扰。研究学生情感和行为体验的性质及动态，有助于我们更好地描述心理困扰的相关因素。在此，我们利用可穿戴设备和智能手机，在整个学年对49名大一学生进行了持续研究。情感、睡眠、学业和社交行为在学期与假期之间以及工作日与周末之间都显示出显著变化。确定了三个学生群体，他们在行为和情感上存在差异，且全年的困扰程度不同。虽然学业对所有人来说都是一个常见的压力源，但困扰程度最高的群体因频繁报告社交压力而凸显出来。此外，报告社交压力（而非学业压力）的频率可预测后续的临床症状。两年后，在新冠疫情期间，大一困扰程度最高的群体再次因频繁的社交压力和加重的临床症状而凸显。相对于学业压力，关注持续的人际压力可能对识别心理病理风险较高的学生特别有帮助。