Mental Health Status and Coping among Portuguese Higher Education Students in the Early Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic

European journal of investigation in health psychology and education

article

Carlos Laranjeira¹  Maria Anjos Dixe¹  Ana Querido¹ 

[1] School of Health Sciences of Polytechnic of Leiria, Campus 2;Centre for Innovative Care and Health Technology ,(ciTechCare), Rua de Santo André-66-68, Campus 5;Comprehensive Health Research Centre ,(CHRC), University of Évora;Center for Health Technology and Services Research ,(CINTESIS), Innovation & Development in Nursing, University of Porto

关键词: mental health;    higher education students;    stress;    anxiety;    depression;    coping;    COVID-19;    pandemic;    Portugal;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ejihpe13020032

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Globally, the COVID-19 outbreak had an adverse effect on higher education students’ mental health and psychological well-being. This study aims to assess the prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression and associated factors in a sample of students in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and determine the predictive effect of mental health status on coping. The sample was collected between March and July 2020 and included 392 higher education students in Portugal. An online cross-sectional study was conducted using a survey that included an information form, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, and the Brief Resilient Coping Scale. The prevalence of mild-to-extremely severe depression, anxiety and stress was 24.2%, 32.7% and 33.4%, respectively. About 60% of the sample had poor coping abilities. Masters students, participants older than 30 years and female participants had significantly greater resilient coping compared to undergraduate students and younger and male participants (p < 0.05). Resilient coping correlated negatively with depression, anxiety and stress. The regression analysis showed that age together with overall levels of depression, anxiety and stress explained 16.9% of the variance in coping. The results should inform the implementation of interventions to mitigate the impact of psychological distress and promote mental health.

【 授权许可】

Unknown