Mental health of undocumented college students during the COVID-19 pandemic
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Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a surge in mental health problems across the United States, and some reports suggest a more severe impact for racial and ethnic minorities. The present study was conducted to gain a preliminary understanding of the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic specifically for dreamers, i.e., undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as minors. A population of about 150 dreamers currently enrolled at a public university in Delaware were invited to participate in an online survey. The survey contained questions about demographics, mental health, academics, immigration, COVID-19 infection, and unemployment, in addition to mental health screens for anxiety (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), and stress (PSS-10). In total, 109 dreamers completed the survey. We observed remarkably high clinical levels of anxiety and depression: 47% of the dreamers met the clinical cutoff for anxiety, 63% met the cutoff for depression, and 67% (2 in 3) met the cutoff for anxiety and/or depression. Rates of anxiety and depression in our sample were significantly higher than those recently reported for college students overall, suggesting that dreamers may be experiencing a more severe mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also found that pandemic-induced concerns about finances, COVID-19 infection, immigration, and unemployment (among other factors) were associated with greater anxiety, stress, and depression among the dreamers in our sample. The present findings are consistent with recent predictions by social scientists that the COVID-19 pandemic would have a disproportionately negative impact on the mental health of undocumented immigrants.
Highlights
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Nearly half the dreamers (47%) met the clinical cutoff for anxiety, and 62% met the clinical cutoff for depression.
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2 in 3 dreamers met the clinical cutoff for anxiety and/or depression.
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The percentage of dreamers meeting the cutoff for anxiety (47%) and depression (63%) were significantly higher than observed for college students overall during the pandemic (31% and 41%, respectively).
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The percentage of dreamers meeting the cutoff for anxiety was also significantly higher than previously observed for undocumented college students in a 2015 survey (35%).
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60% of dreamers said the pandemic had a serious negative impact on their mental health, while 90% said the pandemic made them more anxious about finances.
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90% of dreamers said the pandemic made it harder for them to concentrate on coursework, and 2 in 3 said pandemic-related anxiety hurt their academic performance.
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About 1 in 3 dreamers are “extremely worried” that the pandemic will prevent them from achieving their academic and professional goals.
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76% of dreamers said the pandemic increased their fears of DACA termination.
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10% of dreamers said they or an immediate family member suspected COVID-19 infection at some point but did not get tested for fear of detainment or deportation.
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About 1 in 5 dreamers said they would be “extremely worried” to seek treatment or have a family member seek treatment for COVID-19 due to fears of detainment or deportation.
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Dreamers who reported one or both parents lost their job due to the pandemic had significantly greater anxiety and depression scores and were more likely to meet clinical cutoffs for anxiety and depression.
Article activity feed
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.28.20203489: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable In total, 109 individuals from this population participated in the survey (mean age = 21.76, SD = 2.43; 73 women, 35 men, and 1 “other”). Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:For instance, a major limitation of the present study was that the sample of college dreamers were …
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.28.20203489: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable In total, 109 individuals from this population participated in the survey (mean age = 21.76, SD = 2.43; 73 women, 35 men, and 1 “other”). Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:For instance, a major limitation of the present study was that the sample of college dreamers were fairly homogenous in terms of geography (all respondents attended the same university, and most had permanent residence in North Carolina, Georgia, or South Carolina). Therefore, it will be important for future research to confirm that the high rates of mental health issues observed in the present study would be reflected in a national survey of undocumented college students, while also exploring potential differences between students with DACA vs. those without DACA. Indeed, previous research has indicated that DACA may influence the mental health of undocumented college students (Teranishi et al., 2015). It would also be beneficial for future research to examine whether the pandemic has increased other mental health issues common among undocumented immigrants, including post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and substance abuse (Garcini, Peña, Galvan, Fagundes, Malcarne, & Klonoff, 2017). As the COVID-19 pandemic continues with no end in sight, it gives researchers the opportunity to explore these and related questions with the overarching aim to learn more about the influence of pandemics and economic crises on the mental health of undocumented college students. It is hoped that this line of investigation will encourage the creation and implementation of better government policies that consider the mental health of this marginalized group during the present COVID-19 ...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.28.20203489: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable In total, 109 individuals from this population participated in the survey (mean age = 21.76, SD = 2.43; 73 women, 35 men, and 1 “other”). Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.
Results from TrialIdentif…
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.28.20203489: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable In total, 109 individuals from this population participated in the survey (mean age = 21.76, SD = 2.43; 73 women, 35 men, and 1 “other”). Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
About SciScore
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