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Psychological Distress among Students in Higher Education: One Year after the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the psychological well-being of students. Several stressors (such as socioeconomic and education-related contexts) could influence mental health, as well as individual and relational dimensions. This study proposes to evaluate the predictive effect of these factors...

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Autores principales: Schmits, Emilie, Dekeyser, Sarah, Klein, Olivier, Luminet, Olivier, Yzerbyt, Vincent, Glowacz, Fabienne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8308017/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34299896
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147445
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author Schmits, Emilie
Dekeyser, Sarah
Klein, Olivier
Luminet, Olivier
Yzerbyt, Vincent
Glowacz, Fabienne
author_facet Schmits, Emilie
Dekeyser, Sarah
Klein, Olivier
Luminet, Olivier
Yzerbyt, Vincent
Glowacz, Fabienne
author_sort Schmits, Emilie
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the psychological well-being of students. Several stressors (such as socioeconomic and education-related contexts) could influence mental health, as well as individual and relational dimensions. This study proposes to evaluate the predictive effect of these factors on anxiety and depressive symptoms among students in higher education one year after the beginning of the pandemic. A sample of 23,307 students (Mage = 20.89; SD = 1.96; 69.08% of women) was assessed through an online self-report questionnaire including adapted and validated measures. The main rates were as follows: 50.6% of students presented anxiety symptoms; 55.1% reported depressive symptoms; 20.8% manifested suicidal ideations; 42.4% saw their financial situation deteriorate; 39.1% felt they were dropping out of school. One year after the beginning of the pandemic, students in higher education are anxious and depressed, especially those who identify as women (for both anxiety and depression) and as a non-binary gender (only for anxiety), experience a deterioration in their financial situation, are dropping out of school, or manifest hostility (for both anxiety and depression). The degree of study affects the symptoms’ severity (Bachelor 2 and 3 for anxiety and Master for depression). Contact with family and friends (for both anxiety and depression) as well as regular physical activity (only for depression) should provide some protection against psychological distress. Policy-makers must make a long-term investment in the well-being and positive mental health of the student community.
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spelling pubmed-83080172021-07-25 Psychological Distress among Students in Higher Education: One Year after the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic Schmits, Emilie Dekeyser, Sarah Klein, Olivier Luminet, Olivier Yzerbyt, Vincent Glowacz, Fabienne Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the psychological well-being of students. Several stressors (such as socioeconomic and education-related contexts) could influence mental health, as well as individual and relational dimensions. This study proposes to evaluate the predictive effect of these factors on anxiety and depressive symptoms among students in higher education one year after the beginning of the pandemic. A sample of 23,307 students (Mage = 20.89; SD = 1.96; 69.08% of women) was assessed through an online self-report questionnaire including adapted and validated measures. The main rates were as follows: 50.6% of students presented anxiety symptoms; 55.1% reported depressive symptoms; 20.8% manifested suicidal ideations; 42.4% saw their financial situation deteriorate; 39.1% felt they were dropping out of school. One year after the beginning of the pandemic, students in higher education are anxious and depressed, especially those who identify as women (for both anxiety and depression) and as a non-binary gender (only for anxiety), experience a deterioration in their financial situation, are dropping out of school, or manifest hostility (for both anxiety and depression). The degree of study affects the symptoms’ severity (Bachelor 2 and 3 for anxiety and Master for depression). Contact with family and friends (for both anxiety and depression) as well as regular physical activity (only for depression) should provide some protection against psychological distress. Policy-makers must make a long-term investment in the well-being and positive mental health of the student community. MDPI 2021-07-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8308017/ /pubmed/34299896 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147445 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Schmits, Emilie
Dekeyser, Sarah
Klein, Olivier
Luminet, Olivier
Yzerbyt, Vincent
Glowacz, Fabienne
Psychological Distress among Students in Higher Education: One Year after the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Psychological Distress among Students in Higher Education: One Year after the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Psychological Distress among Students in Higher Education: One Year after the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Psychological Distress among Students in Higher Education: One Year after the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Psychological Distress among Students in Higher Education: One Year after the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Psychological Distress among Students in Higher Education: One Year after the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort psychological distress among students in higher education: one year after the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8308017/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34299896
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147445
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