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. 2021 Feb 9:12:628631.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.628631. eCollection 2021.

The Early Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Stress and Addictive Behaviors in an Alcohol-Consuming Student Population in France

Valentin Flaudias  1   2 , Oulmann Zerhouni  3 , Bruno Pereira  1   2 , Cheryl J Cherpitel  4 , Jordane Boudesseul  5 , Ingrid de Chazeron  1   2 , Lucia Romo  6   7 , Sébastien Guillaume  8 , Ludovic Samalin  1   2 , Julien Cabe  1   2 , Laurent Bègue  9 , Laurent Gerbaud  10   11 , Benjamin Rolland  12 , Pierre-Michel Llorca  2 , Mickael Naassila  13 , Georges Brousse  1   2
Affiliations

The Early Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Stress and Addictive Behaviors in an Alcohol-Consuming Student Population in France

Valentin Flaudias et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: This study evaluated factors linked with perceived stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown and addictive behaviors prior to and during lockdown in a sample of students who indicated engaging in alcohol consumption behaviors before lockdown. Methods: Cross-sectional study. French students from four universities participated in this study, and 2,760 students reported alcohol use. During the first week of lockdown, students reported their perceived levels of stress regarding COVID-19. Substance use and addictive behaviors were reported before and during lockdown, and media exposure, demographical, living conditions, and environmental stressors were reported during lockdown. Results: Women reported greater levels of stress (95% CI: 1.18 to 1.93, p < 0.001). Highly-stressed students also report less social support (95% CI: -1.04 to -0.39, p < 0.001) and were more likely to worry about the lockdown (95% CI: 0.27 to -0.65, p < 0.001). Alcohol-related problemswere more prevalent among the most stressed students (95% CI: 0.02 to 0.09, p = 0.004) as well as eating problems (95% CI: 0.04 to 0.36, p = 0.016) and problematic internet use (95% CI, 0.06 to 0.14, p < 0.001). Students reporting the highest levels of stress also indicated more compulsive eating during the previous seven days (95% CI, 0.21 to 1.19, p = 0.005). Conclusions: The level of stress was strongly related to four categories of variables: (i) intrinsic characteristics, (ii) addictive behaviors before lockdown, (iii) lockdown-specific conditions, and (iv) addictive behaviors during the lockdown. Several variables linked to COVID-19 were not directly linked with perceived stress, while perceived stress was found to correlate with daily life organization-related uncertainty and anticipated consequences of lockdown. Importantly, social support seems to be a protective factor on high level of stress.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; LockDown; addiction; alcohol; public health; stressors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Three distinct profiles of students based on perceived stress level, illustrated by factorial analysis. The red color corresponds to the high-stressed student, the orange to the midly-stressed student and the green to the low-stressed student. The length of the arrows indicates the magnitude of the relationship to the PSS scores, so the longer the arrow, the greater the magnitude.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Variables of the perceived stress level induced by the lockdown and addictive behaviors before and during lockdown in the student population, illustrated by factorial analysis. The length of the arrows indicates the magnitude of the relationship to the different scales so the longer the arrow, the greater the magnitude.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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