Perceived social support and COVID-19 impact on quality of life in college students: an observational study

Ana Cahuas; Michele Wolf Marenus; Varun Kumaravel; Andy Murray; Kathryn Friedman; Haley Ottensoser; Weiyun Chen

doi:10.1080/07853890.2022.2154943

Perceived social support and COVID-19 impact on quality of life in college students: an observational study

Ann Med. 2023 Dec;55(1):136-145. doi: 10.1080/07853890.2022.2154943.

Authors

Ana Cahuas¹, Michele Wolf Marenus², Varun Kumaravel², Andy Murray², Kathryn Friedman², Haley Ottensoser², Weiyun Chen²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
² School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

Abstract

Background: The purposes of this study were to assess the current status of perceived social support and COVID-19 impact on quality of life, to investigate the association of perceived social support with the COVID-19 impact on quality of life, and to examine differences in perceived social support between better and worse COVID-19 impact on quality of life for the total sample and by gender.

Methods: Participants included 1296 university students (399 male, 871 female, 22 transgender, non-binary, or other) with a mean age of 21.5 (SD = 2.6 years) from a large public university in the Midwest region of the US. Students voluntarily completed two questionnaires and demographic information via Qualtrics based on a cross-sectional study design. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) is a 12-item survey used to assess an individual's perception of social support from significant others, friends, and family. The COVID-19-Impact on Quality of Life scale (COVID-19 QoL) is a 6-item scale used to assess the impact of COVID-19 on quality of life. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression, independent t-tests, and ANCOVA.

Results: Multiple linear regression showed that perceived social support from family was a significant predictor of COVID-19 QoL (F = 35.154, p < .01) for the total sample. Further, t-test demonstrated significant differences between males and females on perceived social support (t = -2.184, p < .05) as well as COVID-19 QoL (t = -5.542, p < .01). Results of ANCOVA demonstrated a significant group effect on perceived social support for both males (F = 10.054, p < .01, η² = .025) and females (F = 5.978, p < .05, η² = 0.007), indicating that the better quality of life group scored higher on perceived social support than low quality of life.

Conclusions: Social support from family may act as a key buffer for quality of life during the fall semester of 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in college students. With social interactions restricted during COVID-19, maintained access to social support is highly important.KEY MESSAGESSocial support is a crucial contributing factor to the impact of COVID-19 on quality of life, and support from social relationships may buffer these challenging and unpredictable times.The COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted the quality of life of males and females differently.

Keywords: COVID-19; Social support; college students; quality of life.

Publication types

Observational Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Pandemics
Quality of Life*
Social Support
Students
Young Adult

Grants and funding

The authors declare that the funding source (Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant) had no input into the study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report or the decision to submit the paper for publication.