As the country scrambled in the face of the global coronavirus crisis, the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention and Policy (InCHIP) at the University of Connecticut quickly rallied to establish a funding mechanism for 20 projects studying the social and behavioral implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The Rapid Response program provided up to $5,000 of seed funding to UConn researchers in many departments and multiple campuses. This funding has helped them compensate study participants, pay student workers, and cover other associated costs related to urgent projects that could offer valuable health behavior insights in almost real time.<\/p>\n
The program was announced on March 20, just three days after President Thomas Katsouleas announced UConn would transition to online operations for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester.<\/p>\n
InCHIP Director Amy Gorin says there was tremendous interest in the seed grant mechanism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe immediately realized that many of our social and behavioral scientists wanted to pivot quickly to tackle the crisis we were all facing,\u201d says Gorin, who is also a professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences.<\/p>\n
The quick turnaround for this program removed many of the barriers researchers often face when seeking funding, allowing them to begin collecting data immediately. For many of these projects it is critical that researchers quickly have access to data that reflects the rapidly changing situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this mechanism, we knew we needed to move quickly and distribute funds in a matter of days so teams could collect data in real time as the pandemic evolved,\u201d Gorin says.<\/p>\n
The projects investigate various aspects of how people are responding to the pandemic, including its impact on food procurement, factors affecting people\u2019s likelihood to engage in preventative behaviors such as wearing a mask and social distancing, and LGBTQ+ college students\u2019 living arrangements and wellbeing.<\/p>\n
In one project, an interdisciplinary group of UConn researchers from the departments of Psychological Sciences, Communication, Kinesiology, and Human Development and Family Sciences are collecting data on UConn students\u2019 wellbeing during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
The group of more than a dozen researchers are using their varied expertise to look at student wellbeing from multiple angles including mental health, diet and exercise, social connection, and compliance with COVID-19 prevention measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen this happened, a lot of us immediately thought, \u2018Oh wow, how is this impacting the students and how can UConn help the students get the services they need in this new environment?\u2019\u201d says Rebecca Acabchuk a postdoctoral fellow with InCHIP.<\/p>\n
The longitudinal study began in June and will continue through late October, providing researchers with a wealth of data from brief surveys conducted three times a week.<\/p>\n
By distributing the survey frequently, the researchers hope to capture the ups and downs people feel on the \u201ccorona coaster\u201d as they experience it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are lots of different ways people feel about their day-to-day experiences and we\u2019re trying to capture all of them,\u201d Emily Hennessy, a research assistant professor with InCHIP, says.<\/p>\n
When Acabchuk and Hennessy, who have worked in the SHARP research lab<\/a> for years, submitted their application to InCHIP, Gorin connected them with researchers examining other aspects of students\u2019 wellbeing.<\/p>\n \u201cInCHIP is a great resource for bringing people together,\u201d Saraswathi Bellur, associate professor of Communication, says. \u201cWith their help we are working with researchers from all these different departments who we usually don\u2019t get to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n The study looks at coping behaviors including meditation, media use and consumption, exercise, and substance use.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re capturing a wide variety of behaviors,\u201d Acabchuk says. \u201cEveryone is in flux and people are doing what they can.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the study is longitudinal, the researchers have been able to add or modify questions to reflect ongoing changes in the world, including adding questions about the Black Lives Matter movement and recent protests.<\/p>\n In a sub-study, Keith Bellizzi, a professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences and his PhD students Kaleigh Ligus and Emily Fritzson, are investigating how students with pre-existing mental health conditions and disabilities are faring during the pandemic.<\/p>\n Many students\u2019 treatment of conditions such as depression and anxiety was disrupted by the pandemic as they are unable to see therapists in person and access other forms of support. COVID-19 safety measures such as social distancing and quarantining also hamper social supports to which these students were accustomed.<\/p>\n \u201cI think students with pre-existing mental illnesses may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of the current public health crisis given unanticipated interruptions to managing their illness,\u201d Bellizzi says.<\/p>\n According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 26% of college-aged youth experienced a mental illness within the past year.<\/p>\n Bellizzi\u2019s study is a pioneering look at the toll the pandemic is taking on the management of mental health of college students.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of the questions we\u2019re asking have never been explored before,\u201d Bellizzi says.<\/p>\n The researchers on all parts of the study will share their findings with administrators who are making policies to reopen campus and support students. One question on the survey directly asks participants what services they would like UConn to provide.<\/p>\n \u201cSo much of it is new and so much of it is unexpected, so we\u2019re taking recommendations directly from the participants,\u201d Bellur says.<\/p>\n Like many of the projects funded by the InCHIP Rapid Response program, the team expects these data to give rise to multiple papers contributing to the literature on the pandemic and help bolster future grant applications.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to make this an encouraging collaboration so people can make as much use of this dataset as possible,\u201d Acabchuk says.<\/p>\n Anyone interested in participating in the study can find information at <\/em>https:\/\/is.gd\/UConnBeWellStudy.<\/em><\/a> Questions about the study should be directed to <\/em>wellbeing.survey@uconn.edu<\/em>. <\/em><\/p>\n Follow UConn Research on<\/em> Twitter<\/em><\/a> &<\/em> LinkedIn<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" UConn’s InCHIP used its Rapid Response grant program to get a multitude of research projects focused on the COVID-19 pandemic launched within days of the first closures in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":163402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2213,2269,2076,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-163400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-coronavirus","category-inchip","category-research","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-02 19:04:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163400"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163508,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163400\/revisions\/163508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/163402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163400"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=163400"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=163400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}