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

2019冠状病毒病大流行对身心健康和经济稳定造成了重大破坏。以往关于流行病及其对社会影响的研究很少记录美国年轻人急性心理健康结果的后果或风险/保护因素。本研究将评估大流行期间和之后年轻人的自我认同、健康和心理健康。这些年轻人将在未来几十年成为美国劳动力的重要组成部分，我们社会的运作将取决于他们如何摆脱这场大流行。这项研究还将探讨收入水平和少数民族地位在多大程度上影响大流行对健康结果的影响，并将确定与高风险和高复原力有关的因素。反过来，这将有助于制定新的综合年轻人心理健康干预措施，以减轻COVID-19和未来类似破坏性事件造成的挑战。采用前瞻性队列设计，本项目将解决三个基础研究挑战。首先，它将根据性别、收入和族裔/种族确定不同青年的心理/身体健康状况轨迹，以应对当前的流行病。其次，它将确定特定精神障碍（如抑郁症、焦虑症、创伤后应激障碍）的风险和保护因素。第三，通过定性深度访谈，评估年轻人的大流行经历以及他们为克服COVID-19带来的挑战所做的努力。这项研究的结果将详细阐述发展理论，有助于设计应对大流行的综合对策，改善年轻人的健康和心理结果。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.