Date of Award

Spring 5-31-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology (PhD)

Department

Clinical Psychology

First Advisor/Committee Member

Amy Mezulis

Second Advisor/Committee Member

Joel Jin

Third Advisor/Committee Member

Jordan Skalisky

Abstract

Exposure to previous public health disasters have been found to have a significant negative impact on young adult mental health. Thus, it is important to examine the effect that COVID-19 had on young adult mental health. The current study examined differences in depressive symptoms as well as frequency and impairment of substance use in two cross-sectional samples of undergraduate students, one before COVID-19 and one during COVID-19. This study also examined the moderating effects of religiosity on the association between COVID-19 status and both depressive symptoms and substance use behaviors. Participants were 898 young adults (Mage = 19.83, SD = 1.68; 80.2% female) who were recruited from a private university in the Pacific Northwest. Consistent with hypotheses, young adults in the during COVID-19 group reported greater depressive symptoms (= .15, SE = .93, p < .01), greater frequency of alcohol use (= -.09, SE = .07, p = .02) and greater level of impairment from alcohol use (= -.10, SE = .30, p = .02) compared to the before COVID-19 group. However, the impact of COVID-19 status on young adult frequency and impairment of marijuana use was non-significant. Additionally, strength of religiosity did not have a statistically significant moderation effect on the relationship between COVID-19 status and young adult depressive symptoms or substance use behaviors. Overall, results provide important contributions to the growing body of research on the impact of COVID-19 on young adult mental health. Findings should be interpreted in light of methodological limitations related to the cross-sectional design of the study and substance use measures.

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