RAPID: Trajectories of Risk and Resilience in the Health and Psychological Adjustment of College Students in Response to COVID-19

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The COVID-19 pandemic has produced major disruptions of physical and mental health and of economic stability. Previous research on pandemics and their impacts on society has rarely documented the consequences or risk/protective factors of acute mental health outcomes of young adults in the United States. This study will assess the self-identity, health, and psychological well-being of young adults during and after the pandemic. These young adults will be a critical part of the U.S. workforce in future decades, and the functioning of our society will depend on how they emerge from this pandemic. This study will also explore the extent to which income level and minority status influence the effects of the pandemic on health outcomes and will identify factors associated with high levels of risk and resilience. In turn, this will help create new integrated young adult mental health interventions to mitigate the challenges caused by COVID-19 and similar future disrupting events. Using a prospective cohort design, this project will address three fundamental research challenges. First, it will determine trajectories of the mental/physical health status of diverse young adults based on their gender, income, and ethnicity/race in responses to the current pandemic. Second, it will identify risk and protective factors for specific mental disorders (e.g., depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, PTSD). Third, it will assess young adults’ pandemic experience and their efforts to overcome the challenges presented by COVID-19 by conducting qualitative in-depth interviews. Outcomes from this study will elaborate development theory in ways that can help design an integrated response to the pandemic that improves health and psychological outcomes among young adults.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.