How do you feel during the COVID-19 pandemic? A survey using psychological and linguistic self-report measures, and machine learning to investigate mental health, subjective experience, personality, and behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic among university students

BMC Psychology

Cornelia Herbert¹  Alia El Bolock²  Slim Abdennadher³ 

[1] Applied Emotion and Motivation Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Faculty of Engineering, Computer Science and Psychology, Ulm University, Albert Einstein Allee 47, 89081, Ulm, Germany;Applied Emotion and Motivation Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Faculty of Engineering, Computer Science and Psychology, Ulm University, Albert Einstein Allee 47, 89081, Ulm, Germany;Computer Science Department, Faculty of Media Engineering and Technology, German University in Cairo - GUC, New Cairo City, Egypt;Computer Science Department, Faculty of Media Engineering and Technology, German University in Cairo - GUC, New Cairo City, Egypt;

关键词: COVID-19;    Corona virus;    Pandemic;    Personality;    Mental health;    Depression;    Anxiety;    Emotion perception;    Self-concept;    Linguistic analysis;    Machine learning;    Character computing;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s40359-021-00574-x

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe WHO has raised concerns about the psychological consequences of the current COVID-19 pandemic, negatively affecting health across societies, cultures and age-groups.MethodsThis online survey study investigated mental health, subjective experience, and behaviour (health, learning/teaching) among university students studying in Egypt or Germany shortly after the first pandemic lockdown in May 2020. Psychological assessment included stable personality traits, self-concept and state-like psychological variables related to (a) mental health (depression, anxiety), (b) pandemic threat perception (feelings during the pandemic, perceived difficulties in describing, identifying, expressing emotions), (c) health (e.g., worries about health, bodily symptoms) and behaviour including perceived difficulties in learning. Assessment methods comprised self-report questions, standardized psychological scales, psychological questionnaires, and linguistic self-report measures. Data analysis comprised descriptive analysis of mental health, linguistic analysis of self-concept, personality and feelings, as well as correlational analysis and machine learning. N = 220 (107 women, 112 men, 1 = other) studying in Egypt or Germany provided answers to all psychological questionnaires and survey items.ResultsMean state and trait anxiety scores were significantly above the cut off scores that distinguish between high versus low anxious subjects. Depressive symptoms were reported by 51.82% of the student sample, the mean score was significantly above the screening cut off score for risk of depression. Worries about health (mental and physical health) and perceived difficulties in identifying feelings, and difficulties in learning behaviour relative to before the pandemic were also significant. No negative self-concept was found in the linguistic descriptions of the participants, whereas linguistic descriptions of feelings during the pandemic revealed a negativity bias in emotion perception. Machine learning (exploratory) predicted personality from the self-report data suggesting relations between personality and subjective experience that were not captured by descriptive or correlative data analytics alone.ConclusionDespite small sample sizes, this multimethod survey provides important insight into mental health of university students studying in Egypt or Germany and how they perceived the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in May 2020. The results should be continued with larger samples to help develop psychological interventions that support university students across countries and cultures to stay psychologically resilient during the pandemic.

【 授权许可】

CC BY