Longitudinal Study on Mental Health of University Students and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Comparisons and Perspectives/Estudo Longitudinal sobre Saude Mental de Estudantes Universitarios e a Pandemia de COVID-19: Comparacoes e Perspectivas

The pandemic of COVID-19 affected several social groups, including university students. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the mental health of higher education students in two different moments of the pandemic. This is a longitudinal study, with a non-probabilistic and convenience sample formed by 95 participants ([M.sub.age] = 27.29 years; SD = 7.713) from a federal university in Minas Gerais state. One-way Bayesian ANOVA for repeated measures was used to compare the mental health of the volunteers in two moments of the pandemic and network analysis was used to verify how the variables were related in these two moments of the evaluation, as well as which of them had the greatest expected influence in the emerging models. We used measures of life satisfaction, suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, and stress. The results indicated that there were no differences in the expression of mental health of the participants in the periods, presenting the levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and suicidal ideation with the greatest expected influence on the two models generated. These results revealed the relationships between the variables of each period and their outcomes, besides allowing the raising of considerations about future care in relation to college students' mental health.