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“University students’ economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Germany”

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a major economic downturn that disproportionally affected university students. This empirical research investigated effects and risk factors of the pandemic on students’ economic situation with focus on financial distress and financial limitations. Data was collected usi...

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Autores principales: Gewalt, Sandra Claudia, Berger, Sarah, Krisam, Regina, Krisam, Johannes, Breuer, Markus
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9536534/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36201548
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275055
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author Gewalt, Sandra Claudia
Berger, Sarah
Krisam, Regina
Krisam, Johannes
Breuer, Markus
author_facet Gewalt, Sandra Claudia
Berger, Sarah
Krisam, Regina
Krisam, Johannes
Breuer, Markus
author_sort Gewalt, Sandra Claudia
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic caused a major economic downturn that disproportionally affected university students. This empirical research investigated effects and risk factors of the pandemic on students’ economic situation with focus on financial distress and financial limitations. Data was collected using an online survey in May and June 2020 from students (n = 917) enrolled at universities in Germany. 80.6% were enrolled in bachelor programs (n = 738), the mean semester was 3.8 (standard deviation (SD = 2.0) and students’ mean age was 23.1 years (SD = 4.1). 51.8% (n = 472) were female and 47.4% (n = 432) male. 56.7% (n = 506) of students worked before the pandemic. More than one third reported a decrease in income (36.5%; n = 334) and an increase in financial constraints (38.7%; n = 354). A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that students with regular income were less likely to experience financial distress compared to those without (odds ratio (OR) = 0.456; p = 0.014). Furthermore, working part-time as associated with a higher financial distress compared to those without part-time employment (OR = 1.811; p = 0.003). Students who worked part-time before the pandemic also had a higher probability of increased financial restriction (or constraint) compared to those who did not work part-time (OR = 2.094; p < 0.001). University students were disproportionally affected by the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased students’ economic uncertainty. To offset such problems, financial aid schemes for students need to be made available to alleviate distress and to allow students to focus on their studies but should not compound problems by leading to financial hardship at a later point in time.
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spelling pubmed-95365342022-10-07 “University students’ economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Germany” Gewalt, Sandra Claudia Berger, Sarah Krisam, Regina Krisam, Johannes Breuer, Markus PLoS One Research Article The COVID-19 pandemic caused a major economic downturn that disproportionally affected university students. This empirical research investigated effects and risk factors of the pandemic on students’ economic situation with focus on financial distress and financial limitations. Data was collected using an online survey in May and June 2020 from students (n = 917) enrolled at universities in Germany. 80.6% were enrolled in bachelor programs (n = 738), the mean semester was 3.8 (standard deviation (SD = 2.0) and students’ mean age was 23.1 years (SD = 4.1). 51.8% (n = 472) were female and 47.4% (n = 432) male. 56.7% (n = 506) of students worked before the pandemic. More than one third reported a decrease in income (36.5%; n = 334) and an increase in financial constraints (38.7%; n = 354). A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that students with regular income were less likely to experience financial distress compared to those without (odds ratio (OR) = 0.456; p = 0.014). Furthermore, working part-time as associated with a higher financial distress compared to those without part-time employment (OR = 1.811; p = 0.003). Students who worked part-time before the pandemic also had a higher probability of increased financial restriction (or constraint) compared to those who did not work part-time (OR = 2.094; p < 0.001). University students were disproportionally affected by the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased students’ economic uncertainty. To offset such problems, financial aid schemes for students need to be made available to alleviate distress and to allow students to focus on their studies but should not compound problems by leading to financial hardship at a later point in time. Public Library of Science 2022-10-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9536534/ /pubmed/36201548 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275055 Text en © 2022 Gewalt et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Gewalt, Sandra Claudia
Berger, Sarah
Krisam, Regina
Krisam, Johannes
Breuer, Markus
“University students’ economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Germany”
title “University students’ economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Germany”
title_full “University students’ economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Germany”
title_fullStr “University students’ economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Germany”
title_full_unstemmed “University students’ economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Germany”
title_short “University students’ economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Germany”
title_sort “university students’ economic situation during the covid-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study in germany”
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9536534/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36201548
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275055
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