Commentary: College and COVID

by Sarah Genelly and Clarissa Simon, PhD, MPH

Every day, hundreds of college students in groups of five are anxiously ushered through checkpoints, health checks, and paperwork stations in a vast concrete university building. The experience, reminiscent of airport customs, is one of the few sanctioned times for students to be in groups and one of the only times students venture into campus buildings. There is an uncomfortable awkwardness that accompanies viral testing among strangers. No one really knows where to look when in every direction surrounding students have swabs up their nose and watering eyes. The fifteen second swirl in both nostrils feels like hours when making direct eye contact with that person from chemistry class last quarter. Even though testing protocol changes weekly, testing has, slowly and surely, become a routine part of campus life - a way to protect the safety of fellow students, professors, and college staff. With some colleges moving fully remote, others grappling with on-campus learning or hybrid models, and many would-be students opting out, everyone agrees academic life this year is far from typical.

A dusty underutilized college building full of masked students regularly swabbed for contagion elicits concern from students, but can be terrifying for parents already gripped with fear and worry over separation and the potential for illness. Although college is traditionally a time of exploration and independence for students, many of whom are away from home for the first time, this is not the year parents envisioned when they released their offspring to higher education. The diversity and uniqueness of student living arrangements muddle this transition further, as some students who would have been sent away to campus are home, while others are on-campus but not in the same way as years past. Even on-campus students are struggling and working to adjust to pandemic life.

Very little remains the same in colleges during this pandemic. Many students are at home, in different time zones, and others are isolated to the confines of their own dorm rooms or floors. This distance makes it difficult to establish the same sense of campus community. At-home students now juggle their college schedule with family commitments; they might have family dinners, household duties, or have to care for relatives. Instead of working in a library with other students until the early hours of the morning, students are in their childhood bedrooms with sleeping family members in the next room. This creates a feeling of extended adolescence which blunts the excitement of leaving home and starting adult life. Further exacerbating the sense of a lost community, larger gatherings and parties are disallowed due to safety, and the typical dorm and classroom experience now feels completely different. Zoom classes, with cameras turned off and asynchronous lectures, leave students isolated from their peers and professors. The pandemic has brought the social and academic experience of the post-adolescent college student to a sudden halt in a way that is distinct from younger children (siblings), working adults (parents), or the elderly (grandparents).

The traditional experience for a post-adolescent college student follows a prescribed path in which they are allowed a gradual transition into the next life stage of adulthood. This is usually a time markedly free of later role constraints such as marriage, parenthood, and career stability or expectations. There is typically a freedom to explore new subjects, hobbies, self-identities, or even hair colors while away at college.

These milestones of post-adolescence are ever more difficult to navigate in a COVID world, with college students experiencing changes in routines, learning, employment, health care, and family finances, and their age group experiencing spikes in COVID infection, in part due to lower prevalence of mitigation behaviors. The switch from seeing friends every moment of everyday to living back at home with parents is an environmental change that conflicts with the increased independence and parental separation inherent in developmentally-appropriate movement towards adulthood, one that begins during adolescence. Universities have taken a spin on the usual campus ambassadors for food delivery or dating apps and used peer influencers to encourage COVID reduction behaviors, underscoring the typical reliance on peer support and influence.

While adolescence is marked by social support and separation from parents, early adulthood can herald a new relationship with parents, one of mutual trust and support. Students are often only home for short periods of time during school breaks, making the integration of school and home life difficult for both students and parents. The new extended period of time at home gives students and parents a unique opportunity to establish their changing relationship. Navigating parent connections for college students can guide a more equal adult friendship, replacing the parental and child relationship of the past. This relationship could increase in relative importance earlier due to a lack of typical social convention, a positive development, as this could be a time when instead of stalled adulthood, relationships can mature at a faster pace while responsibilities wait.

For students, it is important to remember that while this may not be the academic year everyone was hoping for, it still may have its advantages. The first months of college pose an adjustment period, both academically and socially, so this newfound ability to ease into college life may allow for better overall health and adjustment. The transition to college is often the first-time students live alone and are entirely responsible for their own wellbeing. The social and academic demands of college life push many new college students to compromise on aspects of their health. The fear of missing out on social events or falling behind in class leads students to neglect necessities like sleep. Too often students, traditionally responsible at college for their meal times, are focused on homework or extracurriculars and forget to eat proper meals during dining hall hours. Living with caregivers can provide students the support they may need to adjust to new academic expectations without making the same sacrifices.

Meanwhile, parents can focus on developing more mature relationships with near-adult children. Living with parents is a protective factor for anxiety among Chinese college students during COVID, suggesting that parents can mitigate stressors and provide social support for their young adult children. In the midst of pandemic stress, parents of college students have a particular opportunity to avoid parental burnout. Parents can provide tangible guidance through emotional availability and support, and by allowing receipt of such from their children in acknowledging an emerging, equitable partnership. During these rapidly changing, unprecedented times, parents should be open to the opportunity to gain a confidant, in a relationship strengthened by shared pandemic-era experiences.

Even after the COVID pandemic passes, the heightened resilience of college students who have emerged with new life skills and matured relationships will be a lifelong strength.