Poorer decision making among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence for "pandemic-brain"

Test-Retest Reliability of Common Behavioral Decision-Making Tasks: A Multi-Sample, Repeated Measures Study

OBJECTIVE

Decision-making is responsible for the best and worst of human nature. The field of decision science has done much to elucidate the psychological process of decision-making, variables that affect decision-making, and outcomes of disadvantageous decision-making. However, understanding any psychological process requires creation of reliable measures. Few studies focus on the test-retest reliability of behavioral decision-making tasks despite their utility in repeated assessment batteries.

METHOD

The present study examined the extent to which common behavioral decision-making tasks are reliable across time. Across two samples and two time points, participants completed multiple decision-making assessments.

RESULTS

Results revealed moderate at best evidence of test-retest reliability across a 10-week interval in any of the tasks assessed.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings raise large questions for the field of behavioral decision-making and the utility for tasks to track changes in decision-making across time in clinical populations.

Depression and academic engagement among college students: the role of sense of security and psychological impact of COVID-19

Background

The negative consequences of depression in college students have garnered global attention, especially in relation to academic achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic, which need critical assessment.

Aim

This study investigated whether a sense of security mediated the relationship between depression and academic engagement among college students during the pandemic and whether the moderating psychological impact of COVID-19 has a moderating effect on this relationship.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, we recruited 466 college students from 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China via the Internet and used established scales to measure depression, academic engagement, a sense of security, and the psychological impact of COVID-19. The mediating and moderating effects were tested using the bootstrap method.

Results

Depression was found to negatively influence academic engagement, with a sense of security partially mediating this relationship. Moreover, the psychological impact of COVID-19 was shown to have a moderating effect on this mediating process.

Conclusion

This study could aid in crafting pertinent strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of depression on learning amid unexpected public health crises and foster better mental health among college students.