Long-Term Psychological Effects of COVID-19 Lockdowns: A Comparative Analysis of Mobile Phone Addiction, Rumination, and Stress Among College Students in China and the Czech Republic

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-686-4_21How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Covid-19; mobile phone addiction; perceived stress; rumination

Abstract

This study examines the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college students in China and the Czech Republic, focusing on mobile phone addiction, rumination, and perceived stress between 2022 and 2023. During the peak of China’s epidemic lockdown in 2022, it was hypothesized that such restrictive measures could lead to significant psychological changes among the populace. We collected data using online questionnaires from 710 Chinese and 1075 Czech college students. The instruments employed were the Short Version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS-SV), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Ruminative Responses Scale. Comparative analyses between the two years revealed that Chinese students exhibited a significant increase in mobile phone addiction, perceived stress, and rumination in 2023 compared to during the lockdown in 2022. Conversely, Czech students displayed no significant changes over the same period. These results suggest that the lockdown’s psychological impacts on Chinese students are both long-term and delayed. The study highlights the need for targeted mental health support for students in post-lockdown phases and raises critical questions about the balance between public health safety and psychological well-being in pandemic responses. It underscores the importance of considering the broader and longer-term psychological consequences when implementing and lifting lockdowns. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the pandemic’s impact on young adults and offers insights for policymakers and educational institutions preparing for future public health crises.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Hongyang Liu
AU  - Jana Kvintova
AU  - Lucie Vachova
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/04/28
TI  - Long-Term Psychological Effects of COVID-19 Lockdowns: A Comparative Analysis of Mobile Phone Addiction, Rumination, and Stress Among College Students in China and the Czech Republic
BT  - Proceeding of the 10th International Conference on Lifelong Education and Leadership for ALL (ICLEL 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 274
EP  - 291
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-686-4_21
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-686-4_21
ID  - Liu2025
ER  -