Student Research Report: College With A Gathering Guideline of Six
In Spring 2021, students in Dr. Emily Stark’s Research Methods and Design course completed multiple hands-on data collection projects. They were also assigned a blog paper where they discussed one of the topics they chose to research and explained their findings to a general audience. The goal of this was to give students an opportunity to explore a different form of writing from APA-style research papers. Some of these blog papers will be featured here throughout the summer to showcase the students’ findings. Please feel free to contact Dr. Stark through the contact form on this site for additional information about this course or the assignments used.
By Ashlynn Spiegelberg
College is usually a time when students have graduated high school and finally get out of their parent’s house to live on their own with no rules while working on their future. This year, that has been a different story. With the Coronavirus circulating the world for the past year, students were faced with a social challenge. Especially with the college freshman class of this fall 2020, they have missed out on the experience of being a recklessly social student. With no gatherings, no sports games, and no in-person classes, there has been no way for students to have a social college life besides social media. With college supposedly being the best and craziest years of your life, it has been very depressing, and students’ mental health is plummeting downwards.
With social interaction being the easiest way for college students to relieve anxiety and depression, students have fallen into spells of depressive episodes. Meeting other students has been a struggle since regular school-held gatherings have been cancelled because of COVID guidelines. For my roommate and I, living in a dorm was the best decision for this troubling year. The only people we have met and hang out with (following COVID guidelines) have been on our floor in our dorm hall and from online classes. I think for most students this year, you meet people, and you stick with that small group all year instead of meeting tons of people all time and switching groups to find the people you really connect with. My two friends and I decided instantly to live together next year because none of us had met anyone else to even be a candidate.
Depression is more than being bummed out. Depression includes being persistently sad, anxious, or generally low mood, loss of sleep, loss of interest, increased tearfulness, and many other signs to look out for (I Feel Depressed | The Students Against Depression). Being trapped in your home to quarantine heightens the feelings of being alone which can easily trigger a depressive episode.
During times of isolation, strengths like meaningful living, hope, and the ability to recover quickly have been found to significantly improve mental health amongst college students. This study refers to complete mental health as “the presence of positive functioning and the absence of psychopathological symptoms” (Arslan et al., 2020). It is important to have coping mechanisms to help with depressive feelings or during a depressive episode. Some helpful ideas to help cope with the isolation are using group hangouts with family or friends, focusing on your health, building or mastering a new skill, practicing mindfulness, limiting screen time, keeping a routine, and giving back to the people around you (Leahy, 2020).
In this time of madness, it is perfectly okay to feel your emotions to the fullest. The entire world is in a place of uncertainty, so it is normal for you to feel the same way. Many lives have been changed unexpectedly. This change can cause many different feelings you have never felt before. It is okay to express your emotions in which ever way you seem fit. You must support yourself and uplift other people in your life as well because they may just be struggling the same way you are. At the end of the day, the world continues, and it does not stop. Hopefully, this pandemic will end, and the people will continue to live their lives to the fullest.
References
Arslan, G., Yıldırım, M., Karataş, Z. et al. Meaningful Living to Promote Complete Mental Health Among University Students in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Int J Ment Health Addiction (2020). https://doi-org.ezproxy.mnsu.edu/10.1007/s11469-020-00416-8
“I Feel Depressed.” Students Against Depression, https://www.studentsagainstdepression.org/i-am-feeling/i-feel-depressed/
Leahy, R. L. "7 Tips for Handling Isolation During the Pandemic." Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, 27 Mar. 2020. Web.