This study collects data on well-being in higher-education students during the COVID-19 pandemic, in 27 countries (Europe, North-America, South-Africa).
P.I.’s : Prof. Sarah Van de Velde, Prof. Edwin Wouters and Dr. Veerle Buffel, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
A focus on the student population in higher education is valuable because this subpopulation is impacted the current COVID-19 outbreak in a unique way as they are confronted with university-level measures on top of the general national measures (social distancing, lockdown, etc.). The current research team hypothesizes that the national and university-level measures significantly impact the well-being of university students, and therefore we intend to identify how the COVID-19 outbreak relates to students’ well-being. This general research aim is translated into the following research objectives:
RO 1: Assess how the living conditions (physical and SES) (1) and workload (2) of higher-education students changed during the COVID-19 outbreak.
RO 2: Assess how the changes in (1) and (2) relate to stress levels (3) among higher education students during the COVID-19 outbreak.
RO 3: Assess how the changes in (1), (2), and (3) relate to well-being, mental health, and health behavior in higher education students during the COVID-19 outbreak.
RO 4: Assess how the associations described in RO 3 are mediated by stressors (fear of infection, boredom, frustration, inadequate information, etc.), social support, and COVID-19 knowledge.
RO 5: Assess the variation in well-being and mental health among higher-education students across participating higher-education institutions and countries.
RO 5: Assess how the cross-institution and cross-country variation in well-being and mental health in higher education students can be related to varying (a) levels of higher-education and (2) national policy contexts.

An online survey will be used to collect data among the student population in order to answer our research questions. The partner is asked to collect data within his/her own institution.