(Converted as ePoster, See Poster Gallery) Exploring Associations between Loneliness, Perceived Mental Health, and Help-Seeking Behaviors Among Graduate Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Loneliness is an important indicator of quality of life for adults and a major determinant of health. The COVID-19 pandemic caused universities and colleges to quickly organize for online teaching and cope with the difficulties of faculty and students during this transition. Graduate students faced a unique set of challenges during the pandemic, including difficulty accessing research materials, concern about completing their degrees, and pressing financial troubles. Institutions of higher education often placed their focus of the COVID-19 response on faculty and undergraduate students leaving graduate students to face their unique set of circumstances feeling unsupported.

In this study, we sought to understand loneliness within the graduate student population and to examine different demographic characteristics among sub-populations of vulnerable students (i.e., international students, students of color, LGBTQ). We also examined associations between loneliness, perceived mental health, and help-seeking behaviors to better understand the degree to which loneliness is impacting graduate students and to inform potential outreach initiatives.

Methods: A comprehensive online survey was created to include the UCLA 3-item Loneliness Scale, along with questions measuring perceived mental health (poor/fair, good, very good/excellent), and whether or not students used a mental health service in the past three months. The survey was disseminated to graduate students at Stony Brook University, which was at the national epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, via email, social media, and/or program-specific departmental newsletters from June through August 2020. Data was analyzed using bivariate analysis (i.e., one-way ANOVA, independent t-tests) and logistical ordinal regression.

Results: A total of 421 students responded to the survey. Using an 80% survey completion cut-off rate, 361 responses were analyzed. Graduate students had a mean age of 32.07 (SD = 10.47). Students were 69% female, 63% White, 13% Hispanic, 25% married, 19% international students, and 22% identified as LGBTQ. The overall mean loneliness score was 5.84 (SD = 1.88, range 3-9) and 40% of students perceived their mental health as poor/fair. Loneliness was significantly higher among students who perceived their mental health as poor/fair and who indicated needing more emotional support. Participants that had a mental health visit in the past 3 months (OR= 1.99 [CI = 1.24, 3.17]) were significantly associated with experiencing greater levels of loneliness. Participants with higher household incomes (OR = .83 [CI =.72, .95]) and greater emotional support (OR = .69 [CI = .63, .77]) were significantly associated with experiencing lower levels of loneliness. There were no significant associations between loneliness and race/ethnicity, international students, or LGBTQ students.

Conclusions and Implications: Having higher incomes and emotional support were found to be protective against experiencing loneliness among graduate students. Considering that graduate students reported feeling lonely and having poor mental health during this time of crisis demonstrates the important need for faculty, staff, and key administrators to implement evidence-based interventions and programming across colleges and universities to support the persistence and graduation of their graduate students.