AUTHOR=López Steinmetz Lorena Cecilia , Leyes Candela Abigail , Dutto Florio María Agustina , Fong Shao Bing , López Steinmetz Romina Lucrecia , Godoy Juan Carlos 

TITLE=Mental Health Impacts in Argentinean College Students During COVID-19 Quarantine

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.557880

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2021.557880

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> We aimed to: (1) analyze differences in both general (in terms of psychological well-being/discomfort, social functioning and coping, and psychological distress) and specific (depression, trait-anxiety, negative alcohol-related consequences, and suicidal risk) mental health state (MHS) in college students, residing in four different Argentinean regions (center, north, south, and the most populated) exposed to different spread-rates of the COVID-19; (2) analyze between-group differences in both general and specific MHS indicators at four quarantine sub-periods (twice prior, and twice following the first quarantine extension).</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> We used a cross-sectional design with a convenience sample including 2,687 college students. Data was collected online during the Argentinean quarantine. We calculated one-way between-groups ANOVA with Tukey's <italic>post hoc</italic> test.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Regionally, the center and the most populated area differed in psychological well-being/discomfort and negative alcohol-related consequences, but not in the remaining MHS indicators. According to the quarantine sub-periods, there were differences in psychological well-being/discomfort, social functioning and coping, psychological distress, and negative alcohol-related consequences. Negative alcohol-related consequences were the only MHS indicator improving over time. For all of the remaining MHS indicators, we found a similar deterioration pattern in the course of time, with mean scores decreasing from the first to the 2nd week of the quarantine pre-extensions, then increasing toward the 1st week of the quarantine post-extension (with some MHS indicators reaching mean scores worse than the start), and then continued to increase.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> A worsened mean MHS during quarantine suggests that quarantine and its extensions contribute to negative mental health impacts.</p>