Eating to cope: How students are dealing with COVID-19-related stress 

With lockdown measures and stay-at-home orders constantly changing in Ontario, students have resorted to comfort eating to cope with stress brought on by school and employment. 

Increased work hours, reduced work hours, being laid off or heavy workloads at school and at work are causing students to feel overwhelmed, especially with the ongoing uncertainty the pandemic poses. 

According to Statistics Canada, nearly 49 per cent of those having job prospects reported losing them in March 2020. At the beginning of March 2020, around 26 per cent of those who were employed reported having to work reduced hours, while 48 per cent said they were laid off. 

Students continue to face challenges with school and employment amidst the ongoing pandemic. As public health restrictions tightened in some provinces, employment in Canada fell by 101,000 in April 2021 for youth aged 15 to 24, Statistics Canada reported.

All this stress is affecting some people’s relationship with food. 

A research team led by Dr. Melissa Chee, an assistant professor at Carleton University’s department of neuroscience, found that individuals who experienced employment change during the pandemic were more likely to feel stressed and resort to eating salty or sweet snacks to cope with their situation. 

Coping mechanisms and stress

At the beginning of the pandemic, many turned towards baking to pass the time at home, leading to shortages of flour, yeast and other baking ingredients. 

Determined to investigate the cause behind the surge in “pandemic baking,” Chee’s team conducted an online survey from the end of May 2020 and beginning of June 2020 to assess whether stress caused by COVID-19-related changes were linked to shifts in food choices.

“When we looked at the data we collected, we first tried to understand what might be underlying some of these changes that we saw in our dataset,” Chee said. “It wasn’t boredom.”  

While the median age of their survey sample was 29 years old, Chee said their younger participants were more likely to be laid off. Their sample’s data found that younger participants, those with less education, those who made a lower annual income or lived in shared living arrangements, were more likely to be laid off. 

Nikita Koziel Ly, a student researcher on Chee’s team, said around 57 per cent of respondents experienced no employment change, while around 43 per cent of respondents worked reduced hours, increased hours or were laid off. 

“Employment change was appraised as a stressful type of event and then people who appraise it as stressful would employ certain types of coping mechanisms,” Koziel Ly said. 

The team found that respondents who experienced an employment status change were likely to perceive the COVID-19 situation as stressful and use emotion-focused or avoidant coping strategies.

She said these coping mechanisms tended to be what they regarded as poorer coping mechanisms, compared to more positive problem-focused coping mechanisms. 

Individuals using emotion-focused coping mechanisms tend to blame others, or use emotional expression to deal with a problem or a stressful situation. Individuals using avoidant coping mechanisms may use wishful thinking, humour or cognitive distraction to cope.

However, individuals using problem-focused coping mechanisms use more positively-regarded strategies such as problem-solving or therapeutic techniques to help them cope with their situation.

“We found that the way people coped also affected their mood. It was their mood that then affected what they were eating,” Koziel Ly said. 

Those who perceived their situation to be stressful or who exhibited a negative mood were more likely to engage in coping by eating behaviours and consume salty and sweet snacks rather than wholesome foods such as fruits and vegetables. 

A struggle for students 

For students, stress from work or finding employment can add to existing pressures of online school. 

Erin Lui-Hing, a student who just completed her first year in biomedical and electrical engineering at Carleton University, recalled looking for work in the summer before her first year, but was not able to find employment. She said her job search this summer was also difficult. 

Around December, she began looking for jobs and internship opportunities for this summer. By the time winter semester rolled around, she started getting stressed and began to panic. Between midterms in March and exams in April, she found it difficult to find the time to apply for jobs. 

“It was definitely at the back of my mind stressing me, on top of school stress,” Lui-Hing said.   

Austina Yu*, a third-year journalism and humanities student at Carleton University, lived on campus during the fall and winter semesters. She said balancing school while adjusting to her new job as a residence fellow added to her stress.  

Both Yu and Lui-Hing said they noticed changes in their eating habits and food choices, especially while studying for exams. Yu said since she was in her room most of the time, she would easily reach for a snack at her desk and she got into the habit of stress eating. 

“If I had gone to the convenience store in residence and bought some snack that I wanted, if I put it next to my desk, I might just keep eating it mindlessly,” Yu said. 

Yu also said her mood affected the foods she wanted to eat. Although a variety of foods were offered at the residence cafeteria, Yu said as the semester progressed and she started feeling overwhelmed with work, she gravitated towards unhealthy foods rather than fruit and vegetables. 

“It was harder to eat healthy food during the pandemic. I just wanted to eat foods that would make me feel immediately good,” she said. 

Over the past year, she looked forward to eating foods she used to eat before the pandemic at different places around campus such as the residence cafeteria. The nostalgia she felt reminded her of life before the pandemic and helped her cope with her current situation. 

“When I get food that I really like, I would be really happy because there’s just not a lot to look forward to,” Yu said. “Seeing all those foods that I used to like really brought back good memories.”

While she tried to eat fruits in the morning, Lui-Hing said she was at her desk for most of the day and so she found herself snacking in between Zoom sessions and breaks, especially at busier times of the semester. 

“I was more conscious of what I was eating in the morning before I started any work, but then the second I got to the grind of the day, I just wanted something quick and super sweet,” Lui-Hing said. 

Since the winter semester ended, Lui-Hing said most of her stress has diminished and she now thinks she’s in a better place than when she started university.

Interacting with people and doing activities she enjoys helps her cope with stress, Yu said. She has tried to push snacks away from her desk to prevent herself from mindlessly eating or eating when she’s stressed. 

Acknowledging the problem

Chee explained she did not expect to see such clear relationships between employment, mood and unhealthy eating. She said her team’s results are quite significant, as they reveal a behaviour that many people can actively work to avoid. 

It is helpful to be aware of how we respond to stressful situations in our lives and what unhealthy habits we tend to adopt as we cope, Chee said. 

“At least if I am aware of my tendencies, I have an opportunity to interject and intervene,” she said. 

While public health measures have focused extensively on physical distancing, handwashing and mask-wearing, Chee and Koziel Ly said not a lot of attention has been devoted to the psychological aspects of the pandemic and unhealthy behaviors people have developed. 

If behaviours such as healthy eating and physical activity were encouraged in public service announcements from governments and public health agencies, Chee said people could have better metabolic health outcomes in Canada or North America. 

Koziel Ly referred to the results of a survey that reported that one in four adults gained up to 10 pounds during the first wave of the pandemic. 

She emphasized sustained weight gain during the pandemic can put the population at risk for metabolic syndrome—certain conditions that can lead to other health problems such as heart disease and diabetes. This is especially prominent given that two in three adults in North America are already overweight or obese, Koziel Ly said. 

Koziel Ly said she is now working with Chee’s research team to analyze data from the same survey and collect data from different phases, in order to understand eating habits and food choices throughout the pandemic. 

“We’re hoping to distribute our survey again this coming fall so that we can compare eating trends at the beginning of the pandemic, when we were in the midst of COVID, at the height of COVID, and then again when we’re back to a semblance of normalcy,” she said.

Both Chee and Koziel Ly agree their team’s research highlights the need for governments and institutions to promote healthy behaviours during the pandemic and beyond. 

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*Austina Yu has contributed to the Charlatan.

Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.