THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON STUDENTS' BURNOUT AND MENTAL HEALTH: A SUBJECT FIELD REVIEW

Since its outbreak in China, the COVID-19 has spread throughout the globe, leading to an ongoing pandemic. Due to the rapid increase in the number of cases as well as the wide geographical spread of the disease, many colleges and universities have been forced to shift to online learning, resulting in dramatic changes in students' lives. Moreover, these changes might make students more prone to some mental health disorders. In response to the rapidly increasing number of publications, this systematic review aimed to summarize the available literature on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on university and college students' mental health. This paper explored the differences in the psychological impact of the COVID-19 period among students from several nations at different stages of the pandemic. The searches were conducted in Scopus electronic database from September 2021 to January 2022. A total of 625 papers were identified, 41 studies met predefined eligibility criteria and were included in this review with a total of 172427 participants combined. The majority of studies focused on depression, anxiety, and stress. Female gender, younger age group (≤30 years), and students who have a relative or a friend diagnosed or suspected with COVID-19 were repetitively reported to suffer from severe symptoms of mental health issues in these studies. The prevalence of anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders among students greatly increased during the coronavirus pandemic, but these changes can be called insignificant if we take into account the estimates for 2019 evaluated in the reviewed longitudinal studies. To fully understand the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological state of students, more studies would be a welcome addition to the rather limited body of literature on students' mental health at the latest stages of the pandemic.