Abstract
This study investigated the trend of the mental health status of Hong Kong university students before and during the 2019 social movement and COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 960 Hong Kong university students completed an online questionnaire in 11 cohorts from 2016 to 2021 in a trend study. In the sample, 68.5% showed various levels of depressive symptoms, and 49.4% were identified to be at-risk for developing mental health problems. The percentage of students with various levels of depressive symptoms and at-risk cases increased from 41.5% and 24.4% in 2016 to 80.0% and 60.0% in 2021, respectively. Overall deterioration of mental health was observed for Hong Kong university students from 2016 to 2021. Furthermore, results showed that positive thoughts, sense-making coping, and resilience functioned as significant protective factors, while negative thoughts and suicidal ideation acted as significant risk factors of various mental health outcomes of Hong Kong university students. © 2025 The Author(s).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2496445 |
| Journal | International Journal of Adolescence and Youth |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Online published | 23 Apr 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2025 |
Funding
This work was financially supported by the Early Career Scheme of Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee of Hong Kong SAR [Project No.: HKBU22603717].
Research Keywords
- Mental health
- university students
- Chinese
- COVID-19
Publisher's Copyright Statement
- This full text is made available under CC-BY-NC 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.en