Impact of COVID-19 on the psychological and behavioral health of college students worldwide: a knowledge mapping approach

The outbreak of COVID-19 had a significant impact on the psychological and behavioral health of college students. However, few studies have systematically explored the relationship between COVID-19 and psychological and behavioral health among college students worldwide. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the impact of COVID-19 on college students’ psychological and behavioral health using a knowledge-mapping approach. In total, 796 publications were selected and analyzed to clarify the publication volume and time distribution, core authors, major journals, research institutions, country distributions, research hotspots, and core themes. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, studies focused on the impact of COVID-19 on college students’ psychological and behavioral health showed an increasing trend year by year. The three countries with the highest centrality were Britain (0.34), the United States (0.24), and Mexico (0.13). The five major topics of research were mental health, academic pressure, physical health risks, college students’ majors, and daily living habits, with most research concerned with college students’ mental health. The visualized burst detection results were combined to identify three cutting-edge research topics in this field: the sustained impact of COVID-19 on college students’ mental health, the sustained impact of COVID-19 on medical college students, and the mediating role of college students’ mental resilience during COVID-19. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings.