COVID-19 became a pandemic that caused widespread panic and increased anxiety and stress in individuals all over the world (World Health Organization, 2020). Many countries closed their schools in early 2020. Professor Chongying Wang’s team conducted one of the earliest longitudinal studies to investigate the anxiety experienced by Chinese university students after the outbreak of COVID-19, just before the start of the new spring term, one month later and three months later. Her research group also examined the mental health of caregivers for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disorders, as well as the role of social support mediating between the severity of symptoms and parenting stress during COVID-19. In this talk, Professor Wang will briefly talk about the results of her studies.

Professor Chongying WANG teaches at the Department of Social Psychology, Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University.