Impact of COVID-19 on Student Mental Health

First-year student volunteers were recruited from the years 2018/19 (pre-pandemic group), 2020/21 (group affected by the COVID-19 pandemic), and 2021/22 (post-pandemic group). Exclusion criteria for all groups were: alcohol abuse or drug use, pregnancy, medical treatment with antidepressant, anxiolytic, opiate medications, and a history of severe psychiatric illnesses. A total sample of 274 students participated in the experiment; 92 students (out of 100 enrolled this year) from the pre-pandemic 2018/19 academic year (72 women, 20 men), between 17 and 31 years old ( $\overline{\mathrm{X}}$ = 19.44, σ = 2.5); 91 students (out of 100 enrolled) from the pandemic 2020/21 academic year (71 women, 20 men), between 17 and 27 years old ( $\overline{\mathrm{X}}$ = 18.71, a σ = 1.52 years); and 91 students (out of 100 enrolled) from the post-pandemic 2021/22 academic year, between 17 and 33 years old ( $\overline{\mathrm{X}}$ = 19.03, σ = 2.7). No significant differences were observed among groups for age (χ² = 2.8, p = 0.24) and percentage of males and females (χ² = 0.37, p = 0.83), between pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic groups.