Students’ negative emotions and their rational and irrational behaviors during COVID-19 outbreak

The pandemic has posed an intense threat to the mental health of younger adults. Despite significant efforts in studying various aspects of COVID-19, there is a dearth of evidence on how negative emotions are associated with behaviors. A comparison across associated factors to different negative emotions by means of a unified model is especially missing from the literature. This study was conducted by using the results of a survey conducted across 2,534 students enrolled in 7 states in the US. Various feelings such as sad, irritable, stress and guilt were analyzed in a unified model by means of seemingly unrelated regression (SUR). Questions were asked related to rationally limiting the spread of virus, and questions related to behaviors that seem to be extreme. Irrational behaviors, such as limiting exercise at home due to COVID-19 could be due to experiencing negative emotions, which distort the meaning of events for the students. That behavior, for instance, was found to be positively associated with various negative feelings. In addition, the results highlighted significant differences across emotions in terms of demographic characteristics such as gender and age, and various precautionary actions that students take, such as limiting outdoor activities or limiting social gathering. For instance, it was highlighted while avoiding a large group of people, in spite of its importance in curbing the spread of virus, is negatively associated with various negative emotions, taking a possible nonconsequential precaution of completely limiting all people outside the immediate family result in a higher level of negative emotions. Also, it was found that having a higher body mass index (BMI), self-rated worse health conditions, and limiting outdoor activities have detrimental effects on the mental health of students.