A quantitative study of the impact of COVID-19 social restrictions on the health and well-being of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) students

Abstract

Background: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) social restrictions, including the movement to online learning, has disturbed students' well-being. Their living situations were among the factors that led to this. Well-being is a vital public health issue. The initial review for this study indicated that previous studies on the topic did not differentiate between students based on their living conditions. Therefore, this study aimed to examine if the effect of the restrictions on students' well-being differed if they lived with their families or otherwise.

Methods: An online questionnaire was created and filled out by LJMU students. Questions about well-being, stress, life satisfaction, general health, social isolation and learning environment were asked using standard scales. Mann-Whitney U tests were then carried out to investigate the significant differences between two groups of students, students living with their families and students living otherwise.

Results: The study had 37 participants, 64.9% were living with their families and 35.1% were living otherwise. The impact of the restrictions on overall well-being was found to be higher among students living otherwise. Nevertheless, the impact of the restrictions on stress, life satisfaction, and general health and the impact of moving to remote learning on well-being and social isolation was higher for students living with their families. The effect of the learning environment on the transition to online learning was higher on those who live otherwise. However, the differences between the two groups were not statistically significant.

Conclusions: The indications of this study could be used to guide local well-being interventions for students. Even so, the implications could be limited due to the small sample size. There is a need for more research on the same topic to be applied to a larger sample. The time in which the study was conducted could have also been a factor that influenced the indications. More research is needed to compare the impact of the three lockdowns on students. Further, more studies are required to examine students' family relationships and their impact on students' well-being.