Effects of COVID-19 Related Stress on University Staff

Background: COVID-19 has posed an unrivaled degree of challenge for the modern world, and while the risk for contracting COVID-19 and its sequelae have started to take shape in the literature, there is still much we do not know. At the university level, studies across the globe have noted the deleterious effects of COVID-19 on students and professors; however, none have yet to report on the effects of non-teaching staff that carry on their work at the university day in and day out. Thus we sought to understand more about how COVID-19 has affected this categorically overlooked population.

Methods: Data were collected from the non-teaching staff of a four-year state university (n=171). To understand how various aspects of COVID-19 have affected individuals, four ordinary least squares regression models were created. The first model utilized the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) as the dependent variable so as to understand the broad psychological impact of COVID-19, while the three other models utilized the stress subscale, anxiety subscale, and depression subscale of the DASS-21 so as to allow for a more targeted understanding of psychological impact. The two primary predictors of interest included the COVID Stress Scale, so as to understand how stress related to the virus might have an impact, as well as the APR Financial Stress Scale, to understand how fear of economic conditions might have an impact. Additionally, we included several control variables: a measure of social support in the context of medical illness, history of being diagnosed with COVID-19, gender identity, racial identity, education status, and monthly income. All variables were entered into their respective models simultaneously and neither variance inflation factor nor Pearson’s r correlations indicated multicollinearity.

Results: All four models were found to be significant, with each model accounting for 34-45% of the variance in its respective dependent variable. Across all models stress due to COVID-19 (b range across models= 0.06 - 0.24, p<0.01) and fear of economic conditions (b range across models= 0.04 - 0.18, p<0.01) were significant predictors, indicating that an increase in either predictor was associated with negative psychological outcomes while holding all other variables constant. Notably, this significance was detected even though personal history of COVID-19 and personal monthly income were not significant. The only aberration in the pattern of significant predictors across models was that age demonstrated a negative relationship (b= -1.01, p<0.01) with the stress multivariate model only.

Significance: While studies have examined the psychological impact of COVID-19 on both students and professors, the impact on the non-teaching staff at universities has been categorically overlooked despite the rapid growth of the COVID-19 literature. Results presented here are steps towards a more just understanding of how COVID-19 has impacted every level of the university and are a sign of the wide need to ameliorate the effects of the global pandemic across the academic ecosystem.