Date of Award
Spring 5-2022
Document Type
Capstone
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Department/Program
Forensic Psychology
Language
English
First Advisor or Mentor
Rebecca Weiss
Abstract
The pandemic has altered everything in its path, including a broad impact on mental health, but not everyone has been affected equally. The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to examine if previously found differences in how non-Hispanic white and Latinx populations experience anxiety persist and/or were compounded. This study investigated distress levels of Latinx and non-Hispanic white undergraduate students at a public Hispanic Serving Institution both prior to and during the pandemic. A two-way ANOVA was run on a subset of an existing database to assess changes in distress levels between the two populations and timeframes. It was hypothesized that distress levels would significantly increase for both populations and that Latinx undergraduate students’ increase would be significantly greater than that of the non-Hispanic white population. Results indicated that there had been no significant increase in distress/stress levels and that the levels of both populations did not significantly differ, with most students scoring in the moderate to high stress level ranges during both timeframes. Given COVID-19’s impacts on mental health, the vulnerability of college students to mental stress, and previously demonstrated differences in how Latinx students experience distress, more research is needed to examine anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recommended Citation
Alarcon, Laura, "Pondering Possible Psychological Pandemonium: COVID-19’s Impact on Undergraduate Students’ Distress Levels" (2022). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_etds/234