College students' distress and coping during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: This study used a repeated cross-sectional design with different samples to examine the trend and predictors of distress and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants: 710 college students from a medium sized university in California. Methods: Participants completed measures of psychological distress, the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, and type and number of exposure and use of coping strategies from 2020 through 2024. Results: By the end of the pandemic, distress and COVID-19 stress were lower than the start but the decline was not as linear for distress as it was for COVID stress. Predictors of distress were gender, minority status, history of therapy, higher COVID stress and proximity to the first pandemic year. Predictors of coping use were gender, racial-ethnic identity, and exposure to coping. Conclusions: Knowledge of pandemic trajectory of distress and coping can help institutions of higher education to understand recovery from distress for their students.