Mental health of college students' worst-hit by virus lockdown: study

College students have come out to be the worst affected mentally by the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdowns, finds a new study conducted by online mental health platform YourDost.

Involving nearly 8,000 individuals, the study compared data collected at the beginning of the lockdown versus data collected at the onset of Unlock 1.0.

'Students registered 41 per cent increase in emotions of anxiety or fear, 54 per cent increase in anger or frustration and 38 per cent increase in the feeling of loneliness/boredom,' the study noted.

At the beginning of Covid-19 restrictions, student respondents registered a one per cent increase in happiness but the feeling of joy went down by 15 per cent as the lockdown progressed.

The study has attributed these dips to difficulties at home, loss of freedom and an uncertain feeling of 'what's next?'