A longitudinal study of the psychological predictors of mental health and stress among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

Abstract Repeated nationwide lockdowns and contact restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany massively affected students’ life.There is a lack of longitudinal studies on the change in students’ mental health problems and the influencing factors across the pandemic phases. The aims of the longitudinal study were to investigate the change in students’ depression, anxiety and stress across a one-and-a-half-year study period of the pandemic in Germany and the association between protective (mindfulness, coping strategies, self-efficacy) and risk factors (financial and academic worries) and students’ mental health issues and stress. A subsample of 911 university students was included in the longitudinal analyses. Students were surveyed at four points during the first and second years of the pandemic. Linear mixed-effects modelling was used to investigate our research questions. The models investigated the protective and risk factors as time-invariant and time-varying covariates. The results showed that depression, anxiety and stress decreased slightly over the pandemic. Further, mindfulness and active coping remained equally important over time for reducing depression, anxiety and stress. However, self-efficacy and acceptance became more critical for reducing mental health issues or stress over time . Although financial worries remained equally important for depression, anxiety and stress throughout the pandemic, academic worries became more important for mental health issues over time.The study provides insights into protective and risk factors throughout the pandemic. The results highlight the importance of investigating time-invariant and time-varying predictors of mental health issues.