Exploring the Effects of Covid-19 on the Body Image, Mental Health and Interpersonal Relationships of College Students

Background: Covid-19 unexpectedly shocked the world in the year 2020 in terms of health when the Coronavirus caused millions of deaths globally. Due to the massive disruptions that have been caused in people’s everyday life, the pandemic has had the potential to affect the lives of the students physically, financially, psychologically, academically and socially. The rationale of the study was to get down to the depths of understanding the effect that the Covid- 19 pandemic had on college students and looked into the impact that it had on their body image issues, mental health and their interpersonal relationships with others. Methodology: The research was qualitative in nature and was analysed using thematic analysis. For the study, a total of 15 students between the ages of 18 and 24 were selected from different colleges using purposive sampling. Semi structured questions were used to collect data for the study. Result: 10 themes were taken out from the study. It was seen that most of the participants were dissatisfied with their body image and reported an increase in their levels of stress and anxiety as a result of Covid-19. In terms of Interpersonal relationships, while most of the participants said that their relationships with their family members had increased, all of them admitted that they had lost touch or become distant with at least one or more of their friends as a result of less social interaction. Conclusions: This study proposes to study the after effects of the pandemic on the mental health of the college students and their relationships with family as it could be an important field to explore.