The substance use behaviors change of first-year college students before and during COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: This article tests the substance use behaviors of college students before and during COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: In-depth assessment and nightly survey data was used from a longitudinal study (n = 675) which examined student substance use during the 2019-2020 academic year, both before and during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Changes in beer/wine, tobacco, liquor, and marijuana use before versus during the pandemic, in addition to the interaction of COVID-19, were tested with gender and subjective social status. RESULTS: Marijuana use significantly decreased from a weekly prevalence of 9.9% before COVID-19 to 6.4% during COVID-19 (p = 0.002). A similar decrease was seen in liquor use (10.6% before COVID to 6.4% during COVID, p = 0.01). There was no significant change observed for beer/wine use or for tobacco use. CONCLUSION: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, liquor, and marijuana use decreased for college students, while other substance use stayed the same.

Ecological Momentary Assessment of Physical Activity and Wellness Behaviors in College Students Throughout a School Year: Longitudinal Naturalistic Study.

BACKGROUND: The Wellness Environment app study is a longitudinal study focused on promoting health in college students. OBJECTIVE: The two aims of this study were (1) to assess physical activity (PA) variation across the days of the week and throughout the academic year and (2) to explore the correlates that were associated with PA, concurrently and longitudinally. METHODS: The participants were asked to report their wellness and risk behaviors on a 14-item daily survey through a smartphone app. Each student was provided an Apple Watch to track their real time PA. Data were collected from 805 college students from Sept 2017 to early May 2018. PA patterns across the days of the week and throughout the academic year were summarized. Concurrent associations of daily steps with wellness or risk behavior were tested in the general linear mixed-effects model. The longitudinal, reciprocal association between daily steps and health or risk behaviors were tested with cross-lagged analysis. RESULTS: Female college students were significantly more active than male ones. The students were significantly more active during the weekday than weekend. Temporal patterns also revealed that the students were less active during Thanksgiving, winter, and spring breaks. Strong concurrent positive correlations were found between higher PA and self-reported happy mood, 8+ hours of sleep, ≥1 fruit and vegetable consumption, ≥4 bottles of water intake, and ≤2 hours of screen time (P<.001). Similar longitudinal associations found that the previous day's wellness behaviors independently predicted the following day's higher PA except for mood. Conversely, the higher previous-day PA levels were associated with better mood, more fruit and vegetable consumption, and playing less music, but with higher liquor consumption the next day. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a comprehensive surveillance of longitudinal PA patterns and their independent association with a variety of wellness and risk behaviors in college students.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on College Student Mental Health and Wellness.

OBJECTIVE: To test the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID) pandemic on the emotions, behavior, and wellness behaviors of first-year college students. METHOD: A total of 675 first-year university students completed a full assessment of behavioral and emotional functioning at the beginning of the spring semester 2020. Of these, 576 completed the same assessment at the end of the spring semester, 600 completed at least 1 item from a COVID-related survey after the onset of COVID pandemic, and 485 completed nightly surveys of mood and wellness behaviors on a regular basis before and after the onset of the COVID crisis. RESULTS: Externalizing problems (mean = -0.19, 95% CI = -0.06 to 0.33, p = .004) and attention problems (mean = -0.60, 95% CI = -0.40 to 0.80, p < .001) increased after the onset of COVID, but not internalizing symptoms (mean = 0.18, 95% CI = -0.1 to 0.38, p = .06). Students who were enrolled in a campus wellness program were less affected by COVID in terms of internalizing symptoms (ß = 0.40, SE = 0.21, p = .055) and attention problems (ß = 0.59, SE = 0.21, p = .005) than those who were not in the wellness program. Nightly surveys of both mood (ß = -0.10, SE = 0.03, p = .003) and daily wellness behaviors (ß = -0.06, SE = 0.03, p = .036), but not stress (ß = 0.02, SE = 0.03, p = .58), were negatively affected by the COVID crisis. The overall magnitude of these COVID-related changes were modest but persistent across the rest of the semester and different from patterns observed in a prior year. CONCLUSION: COVID and associated educational/governmental mitigation strategies had a modest but persistent impact on mood and wellness behaviors of first-year university students. Colleges should prepare to address the continued mental health impacts of the pandemic.

The clinical characteristics of unipolar vs. bipolar major depression in ADHD youth.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the characteristics of unipolar vs. bipolar depression in youth using a sample of children referred for a study on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: We compared children with unipolar depression (N=109) to those with bipolar depression (N=43) using boys and girls (N=280) referred for a study on ADHD. Comparisons were made in characteristics of depression, comorbidity and family history. All diagnoses were made using the KSADS-E. RESULTS: In comparison to children with unipolar depression, children with bipolar depression were more likely to have met criteria for depression due to both "sad" and "mad" mood states as stated in the KSADS-E, have severe depression with suicidality, anhedonia and hopelessness. Children with bipolar depression were more likely to have comorbid conduct disorder, severe oppositional defiant disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive compulsive disorder and alcohol abuse, compared to children with unipolar depression. Bipolar depressed children had lower GAF scores and higher rates of hospitalization. Bipolar depression is associated with higher levels of psychiatric disorders in first-degree relatives. CONCLUSIONS: In youth, bipolar depression is distinct from unipolar depression in quality and severity of symptoms, comorbidity and family history. This presentation can aid clinicians in identifying children and adolescents with bipolar disorder.