About Transitions

The Transitions survey is a longitudinal survey of mental health that follows an entering cohort of first year students at a large research university in North Carolina, from their first year of college through the Covid-19 pandemic and to graduation.

Wave 1 was initiated in October/November 2019 with an email invitation to a random sample of in-state, first-year college students aged 18 or older and enrolled in the selected university. In January/February 2020, the sample was expanded to include all enrolled first-year students. Participants who did not respond to the initial email invitation were sent a follow-up invitation offering a $10 gift card incentive. Follow up email invitations were sent out to 738 Wave 1 respondents who expressed a willingness to participate in follow up survey. The Wave 2 follow up survey was sent out in June/July 2020, roughly four months after the start of the pandemic in the US before vaccinations were in place and after our cohort had completed their first year in college. Wave 3 was sent out in September/October 2021, roughly 18 months after the start of the pandemic when students in our cohort were beginning their 3rd year in college and after campuses returned to mostly in-person classes. Wave 4 was sent out at April to June 2023 when students were finishing or had finished their 4th year in college. Students were offered a $15 gift card incentive for Wave 2 and a $25 gift card incentive for Wave 3 and Wave 4. Consistent with many online surveys, our Wave 1 response rate was 30% (N = 1124). Our Wave 2 response rate was 64 percent (N = 472), Wave 3 was 67\% (N=498), and Wave 4 roughly 50%.

The survey has also been linked to administrative data on student course-taking, academic and admissions records.

The research team gratefully acknowledges funding from UNC Chapel Hill’s Office of Undergraduate Research, Department of Economics, and Office of Research Development (UNC Idea grant). This research was also supported by the Carolina Population Center and its National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Grant Award Number P2C HD50924, the Integrating Special Populations/ North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute through Grant Award Number UL1TR002489 (Perreira), and the North Carolina Collaboratory. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or the other funders.

IRB approval for this research was obtained through UNC’s IRB, Study 19-1947.