Distinguishing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Canadian Post-Secondary Student Mental Health

There is a need to assess the impacts of changes and disruptions to support services and programming for Canadian youth pursuing post-secondary education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian youth have been enrolling in post-secondary education programs, including university programs, at increasing rates. Before the pandemic hit, many university students reported high levels of subjective psychological distress. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this already-present risk for distress and mental health problems for post-secondary students. COVID-19 restrictions transformed the delivery of post-secondary education last year. Academic environments were characterized by online delivery of courses, remote learning, and altered and limited access to campus services. The proposed research leverages two ongoing large-scale projects to 1) enhance understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 on post-secondary student mental health; 2) describe university student service use patterns within the altered service delivery context that characterized the 2020/2021 academic year; and 3) identify groups of students who were particularly vulnerable to the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health. The results of the proposed research will be ready for mobilization in time for the 2022/2023 academic year, providing critical information to programming and service providers to develop and direct targeted supports for mental health for those students particularly negatively impacted by COVID-19 disruptions.