Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Aug 20:16:1576596.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1576596. eCollection 2025.

Isolation, social support, and COVID-19-burnout among college students in a university in eastern China

Yan Song  1 , Huizi Li  1 , Yuxin Song  1 , Gexuan Song  1 , Qing Su  1 , Na Liu  1 , Zheng Zheng  1 , Yueyi Sun  2
Affiliations

Isolation, social support, and COVID-19-burnout among college students in a university in eastern China

Yan Song et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: To cope with the COVID-19, social isolation applied by countries around the world. These measures have significantly impacted public health, particularly among Chinese college students. Considering the significant impact of social isolation on social support, and the important value of social support for mental health, this study aims to explore the effects of social isolation on the mental health of Chinese college students during the pandemic.

Methods: The Social Support Scale, COVID-19-burnout Scale Questionnaire, and Brief Symptom Checklist were used in this survey. In November 2022, a total of 394 college students voluntarily participated in this survey. And 70.3% of them were female, mean age = 19.09 ± 0.82 years), with 31.0% (n = 122) isolated and 69.0% (n = 272) non-isolated.

Results: (1) Compared with the non-isolated group, the isolated group of college students scored significantly lower on social support (t = -3.40, p < 0.01), higher on COVID-19-burnout (t = 2.42, p < 0.01) and psychological distress (t = 2.96, p < 0.01); (2) Significant negative correlations emerged between social support and COVID-19-burnout (r = -0.142, p < 0.01), as well as psychological distress (r = -0.356, p < 0.01); (3) Within-family social support correlated negatively only with psychological distress (r = -0.314, p < 0.01), whereas outside-family social support was negatively associated with both COVID-19-burnout (r = -0.157, p < 0.01) and psychological distress (r = -0.339, p < 0.01). (4) Isolation moderated the relationship between social support and COVID-19-burnout (β = -0.213, p < 0.01; interaction β = 0.198, p < 0.01), but not social support and psychological symptoms (p = 0.26).

Conclusion: This study found the negative impacts of social isolation and positive influence of social support during COVID-19 on the mental health and COVID-19-burnout of college students. It also highlights the influence of extra-family social support in reducing psychological distress and COVID-19-burnout. And isolation was found acted as a significant variable between social support and COVID-19-burnout. These results provide a new insight for understanding the mechanism through which social support impacts the mental health, and suggesting tailored interventions for Chinese college students in the context of COVID-19. The cultural characteristics during the isolation process and some limitations of this research were discussed also.

Keywords: COVID-19-burnout; college student; isolation; mental health; social support.

PubMed Disclaimer

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

Line graph showing the relationship between social support and burnout, with separate lines for isolation. “Yes” shows a steep decline, while “No” remains nearly flat. Burnout decreases with increased social support, especially with isolation.
FIGURE 1
Simple slope of the moderating effect of isolation on the relationship between social support and COVID-19-burnout.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Alloway R., Bebbington P. (1987). The buffer theory of social support–a review of the literature. Psychol. Med. 17 91–108. 10.1017/s0033291700013015 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alves M. G. D. M., Chor D., Faerstein E., Lopes C. D. S., Werneck G. L. (2004). Short version of the” job stress scale”: A Portuguese-language adaptation. Rev. Saude Publ. 38 164–171. 10.1590/s0034-89102004000200003 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Browning M., Larson L. R., Sharaievska I., Rigolon A., McAnirlin O., Mullenbach L., et al. (2021). Psychological impacts from COVID-19 among university students: Risk factors across seven states in the United States. PLoS One 16:e0245327. 10.1371/journal.pone.0245327 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen B., Sun J., Feng Y. (2020). How have COVID-19 isolation policies affected young people’s mental health?–Evidence from Chinese college students. Front. Psychol. 11:1529. 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01529 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cohen S., Wills T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychol. Bull. 98 310–357. 10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.310 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources