Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of Japanese university students without depressive symptoms at university entrance.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the mental health of university students. However, despite the many downsides of experiencing the pandemic, some students also experienced positive consequences, such as reduced academic pressure and increased time to attend to wellness. The impact may vary from individual to individual. This study investigated the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of Japanese university students who did not have depressive symptoms before the pandemic.

Methods: The data of 3,100 fourth-year university students who did not have depressive symptoms at either the clinical or subthreshold level, or disordered eating behaviors at university entrance were available for analysis: 1,335 were fourth-year students before the pandemic and 1,765 fourth-year students during the pandemic. Differences in depressive symptoms were examined with the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), eating behaviors with the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26) and Bulimic Inventory Test, Edinburgh (BITE) and stress coping with Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). Differences in the frequencies of clinical, subthreshold, and nondepressed depression status groups were compared for before and during the pandemic groups. Furthermore, we investigated the relation between the development of depression and stress coping styles during the pandemic.

Results: The BDI-II and BITE scores of fourth-year students during the pandemic were significantly lower than those before the pandemic. Female fourth-year students during the pandemic scored significantly higher on the CISS-task-oriented scale than did fourth-year students before the pandemic. Changes in stress coping behavior were also associated with the development of depressive symptoms during the pandemic.

Conclusion: Fourth-year university students who did not have depressive symptoms or disordered eating behaviors at university entrance experienced fewer depressive symptoms and fewer bulimic symptoms during the pandemic than did students before the pandemic. Additionally, our results suggest that task-oriented was associated with a decreased risk of depressive symptoms during the pandemic, especially for female students.