Navigating Through COVID: How Has COVID Impacted College Student Adjustment?
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Virginia Wickline
Location
Savannah Ballroom
Type of Research
Completed
Session Format
Poster Presentation
College
College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
Department
Psychology
Abstract
College adjustment is the way incoming and continuing college students cope with the demands of college life, including academic, mental, socioemotional, and developmental components. The purpose of this research project is to determine whether the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on college students' ability to adjust to college living across three distinct phases: pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, and post-pandemic. A cross-sectional sample of 1,515 participants from Georgia Southern University completed the Wooster-Wickline College Adjustment Test (WOWCAT; Wickline et al., 2009) between 2019-2024, which was administered online via Qualtrics, a secure web-based survey platform. Although the WOWCAT has been successfully used in previous studies concerning college student adjustment, no research has yet examined whether participants' academic, social/interpersonal, psychological, and developmental aspects of college adjustment were differentially impacted by the COVID-19 timeline. Our study aimed to fill this gap by providing an analysis of potential differences in adjustment across these three COVID phases, thereby offering further substantive validation of the WOWCAT within the context of this unprecedented historical event. The results showed the detriments were primarily social in nature. There was a significant difference in 5 out of 10 domains across the three time periods, with small effects that indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic did have a significant impact on college students' ability to adjust to college living. The results of this study display that although the COVID-19 pandemic altered different domains in building and maintaining connections (many of which have rebounded post-pandemic), other studies have shown that some college students struggle with building steady connections, maintaining mental health, and the making decisions that can build upon one interest instead of fearing the unknown.
Program Description
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Start Date
4-21-2026 10:00 AM
End Date
4-21-2026 12:00 PM
Recommended Citation
Johnson, E'Lena E.H, "Navigating Through COVID: How Has COVID Impacted College Student Adjustment?" (2026). GS4 Student Scholars Symposium. 33.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/research_symposium/2026A/2026A/33
Navigating Through COVID: How Has COVID Impacted College Student Adjustment?
Savannah Ballroom
College adjustment is the way incoming and continuing college students cope with the demands of college life, including academic, mental, socioemotional, and developmental components. The purpose of this research project is to determine whether the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on college students' ability to adjust to college living across three distinct phases: pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, and post-pandemic. A cross-sectional sample of 1,515 participants from Georgia Southern University completed the Wooster-Wickline College Adjustment Test (WOWCAT; Wickline et al., 2009) between 2019-2024, which was administered online via Qualtrics, a secure web-based survey platform. Although the WOWCAT has been successfully used in previous studies concerning college student adjustment, no research has yet examined whether participants' academic, social/interpersonal, psychological, and developmental aspects of college adjustment were differentially impacted by the COVID-19 timeline. Our study aimed to fill this gap by providing an analysis of potential differences in adjustment across these three COVID phases, thereby offering further substantive validation of the WOWCAT within the context of this unprecedented historical event. The results showed the detriments were primarily social in nature. There was a significant difference in 5 out of 10 domains across the three time periods, with small effects that indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic did have a significant impact on college students' ability to adjust to college living. The results of this study display that although the COVID-19 pandemic altered different domains in building and maintaining connections (many of which have rebounded post-pandemic), other studies have shown that some college students struggle with building steady connections, maintaining mental health, and the making decisions that can build upon one interest instead of fearing the unknown.
