scholarly journals Depression among higher education students in Greece during the first C19 lockdown

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (Supplement_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Stathopoulou

Abstract Background The imposition of containment measures internationally during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has indicated the need for data on the psychological impact of quarantine. We use the C19 ISWS Greek dataset to examine self-reported depression in relation to alcohol and tobacco use, social contacts, relationship status and perceived risk of infection. Methods Online survey data was collected between May-June 2020. Eligible participants were higher education students in Greece and 889 students participated. We performed frequency analysis on the participants who completed the questionnaire (N = 585). Weights were applied to eliminate response bias and adjust the sample survey means and proportions to the student population in the country. Results Findings suggest that depressive symptoms are more frequent among female students, first generation migrant students and those in their first year of study. Students who were anxious about getting infected with COVID-19 reported higher rates of depressive symptoms. However, students with slightly higher rates of depression were not very worried about getting severely ill from an infection. The share of students who drunk systematically did not change during the COVID-19 outbreak, their rate is low (0% - 2.2%) and they do not report high rates of depressive symptoms. Depression scores seem to be affected by relationship status, the degree of contacts with friends, and the availability of a trusted person. Results indicate that the fewer the contacts with friends are, the higher the mean depression score is. Conclusions The results confirm the gender-gap in depression and are in line with evidence indicating the high prevalence of depression among women in Greece in the aftermath of austerity and recession. As Greece was one of the South-European countries hardest hit by economic crisis, it is possible that negative effects of the crisis have had a cumulative effect on students' mental health in the pandemic.

Author(s):  
Carlos Laranjeira ◽  
Maria Anjos Dixe ◽  
Olga Valentim ◽  
Zaida Charepe ◽  
Ana Querido

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant psychological impact on vulnerable groups, particularly students. The present study aims to investigate the mental and psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated factors in a sample of Portuguese higher education students. An online cross-sectional study was conducted among 1522 higher education students selected by convenience sampling. The survey assessed mental health symptoms as well as sociodemographic variables, health-related perceptions, and psychological factors. Results were fitted to binary and multivariable logistic regression models. The overall prevalences of stress, anxiety, and depression were 35.7%, 36.2%, and 28.5%, respectively. Poor mental health outcomes were related with being female, having no children, living with someone with chronic disease, facing hopelessness, and lacking resilient coping. Future studies focusing on better ways to promote mental health and wellbeing among students are warranted. It is necessary to gather more evidence on the post-pandemic mental health using robust study designs and standardized assessment tools.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 744-762
Author(s):  
Yin Ma ◽  
Dawn Bennett

PurposeWith a focus on Chinese higher education students, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between students' perceived employability and their levels of academic engagement and stress.Design/methodology/approachThe study engaged 1,155 students from three universities in China. Students responded to an online survey, reporting their confidence in relation to their perceived employability, academic engagement and stress in life. The authors employed structural equation modelling to explore students' confidence in each employability attribute and to assess perceived employability relation to academic engagement and perceived stress.FindingsThe results suggest that self-perceptions of employability are positively associated with students' academic engagement and negatively associated with perceived stress. Perceived employability mediated the majority paths.Originality/valueThis is one of the few studies to examine perceived employability in line with academic engagement or stress and the first study to do so in China.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Feng ◽  
Dan Dong ◽  
Min Zong ◽  
Zhizun Yang ◽  
Zhihong Qiao

Abstract Background The positive predictive effect of altruism on physical and psychological well-being has been extensively demonstrated in previous studies, but few studies have examined the effect of altruism on negative mental health outcomes when altruists cannot perform altruistic behaviors. This study explored the influence of altruism on negative affect and mental health (anxiety and depression) during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people self-isolated at home in China.Method: College students were recruited via a cross-sectional online survey during the outbreak of COVID-19 in China. Self-reported perceived risk, altruism, negative affect, anxiety and depressive symptoms were measured using the Self-Report Altruism Scale (SRA), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and the 9-item PHQ depression scale (PHQ-9). A structural equation model was used to analyze the mediating and moderating effects on mental health.Results The final sample comprised 1346 Chinese participants (Mage = 19.76 ± 2.23 years, 73% female). Overall, the higher risk people perceived, the more negative affect they exhibited (β = 0.16, p < .001); thus, the more anxious and depressed they felt (β = 0.134, p < .001), but this relationship between risk perception and negative affect was moderated by altruism. Paradoxical to previous studies, the increase in negative affect associated with increased perceived risk was pronounced among individuals with high altruism ( t = 7.68, p < .001).Conclusions Individuals with high altruism exhibited more negative affect, indirectly increasing their anxiety and depressive symptoms. The findings enrich the theory of altruism and provide valuable insight into the influence of altruism on mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikesh Kumar ◽  
Mohit Varshney ◽  
Harmandeep Singh ◽  
Amandeep Singh ◽  
Julien S. Baker

Abstract Objective: The WHO has stressed to regularly monitor the mental health of populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, we conducted this study to examine anxiety and depression among recovered and recovering COVID-19 patients. Subjects and Methods: An online survey was conducted using social media platforms. The study participants were COVID-19 infected individuals who had recovered or still were in the recovery phase from COVID-19. We collected information on demographics, clinical characteristics and physical complications of COVID-19. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed using previously validated tools. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were applied to analyze the data. Results: 53.4% of respondents reported that they had a fear of getting COVID-19 again. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were present in 71.7% and 97.6% of respondents respectively. Both disorders were present in 71.3% of respondents. The respondents with shorter durations of physical symptoms (< 2 weeks) demonstrated less anxiety (OR = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.05 - 0.67) and depression (OR = 0.03; 95% CI: 0.01 - 0.37). Conclusion: Anxiety and depression appear as common psychological complications in COVID-19 recovering and recovered patients. Longer durations of COVID-19 related physical symptoms were associated with an increased likelihood of anxiety and depression.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-103
Author(s):  
László Berényi ◽  
Bernadett Szolnoki ◽  
Lehel Zoltán Györfy ◽  
Nikolett Deutsch

Beyond professional and IT competencies, sufficient computer work requires adequate workplace design. Applying ergonomic aspects in design and utilization aims to establish and maintain the man-machine system while considering long term impacts. However, the human body is quite adaptive to health-disadvantaged work postures, and it may be adversely affected, which leads to a decrease in work performance as well. This study investigates the relationship between computer use habits, workplace design, work environment, and perceived health impacts among higher education students. The study aims to find the critical factors of computer work for establishing ergonomic development actions. The results are based on the responses of 711 business students from various higher education institutions in Hungary, using a voluntary online survey. Cross-tabulation, ANOVA, and correlation analyses could show that exposition to the risk by workload and wrong workplace selection go together with more health problems. The results show that portable computers are preferred, sitting posture is usually wrongly chosen, tiredness in the upper body is common, but students rated their workplace design rather good. The main experience of the study is that targeted actions are required for protecting the health and improve efficiency in performing computer activities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-275
Author(s):  
Ng Chong Guan ◽  

During this COVID-19 pandemic, massive unverified information has flooded the social media platforms, causing heightened levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms among public. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the COVID-19 related knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) and its psychological impact, such as anxiety and depressive symptoms in Malaysia population. A crosssectional online survey was conducted from 8th to 22nd April 2020, involving 227 respondents. The set of questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics, the KAP questionnaire – 11 items on knowledge (K1-K11), 3 items on attitude (A1- A3), 4 items on practice (P1-P4), together with Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) Scale. To evaluate the data, descriptive analysis, Chi-square test and item response theory analysis were implemented. The percentage of respondents who answered the true statements items from Knowledge component (K1-K3) correctly was almost 100%. However, that of items testing on COVID-19 myths (K4-K11) ranged from 38.8% to 95.2%. The only item from Attitude component which had less than 95% being answered correctly was A1 (78.9%), regarding face masks usage. From the Practice component, over 80% of respondents identified that they used social media to obtain updates on COVID-19 all the time. This is alarming as most of the information circulating on social media have not been verified by relevant authorities, which might lead to, and continuously reinforce anxiety-inducing myths. This study showed that lower overall KAP scores, particularly for Knowledge component items, are related to higher anxiety levels and more depressive symptoms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filomena COVAS ◽  
Feliciano Henriques VEIGA

Abstract Within the scope of socio-cognitive theories, student engagement in school has been studied as a multidimensional construct. A four-dimensional perspective was adopted, with the dimensions: affective, cognitive, behavioural and agentic. The objective, to analyse how the variables age and parental education relate to student engagement in school. The sample consisted of 715 Portuguese public Higher Education students from the Lisbon area. The data was collected through an online survey, which included the Student Engagement in School: a Four-Dimensional Scale – Higher Education Version. Data analysis not only revealed that students of age 26 or older scored considerably higher results in engagement than younger colleagues, but also highlighted significant differences of engagement in the affective, behavioural and agentic dimensions, depending on parental education. The results, while partially corroborating the revised literature, suggest future in-depth studies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 39-44
Author(s):  
A. Tserkovnyi ◽  
M. Tserkovna

The aim of the article is to study the dynamics of the perception of higher education students of the Department of Cultural Studies of the organization of the educational process in the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture. The article highlights the main directions of further work of the administration and teachers of the Department of Cultural Studies to coordinate actions to optimize the educational process. The methodology. To study the opinion of higher education students of the Department of Cultural Studies on the organization of the educational process at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, a survey was conducted in May 2020 and March 2021. The survey belongs to the type of “Mass common correspondence online survey”. The questionnaire “Applicants for higher education about the organization of the educational process at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture” has 21 questions, 20 of which are closed questions. An additional open-ended question was added to allow respondents to express their views on the educational process. The questionnaire allowed for the omission of the question if the respondent did not have information. The answers were collected online, in Google forms. To achieve relative anonymity, only the year and specialty were recorded. No other personal data was registered. For questionnaires, a restriction on the period of recording results was introduced. The collection of answers to each questionnaire lasted 2 weeks. The results. The results of the analysis of the dynamics of perception allow us to conclude that during the year there was a significant increase in positive perception — 9 positions have changed significantly for the better in the perception of higher education students of the Department of Cultural Studies. However, there is an increase in the negative perception of several items in the survey — 3 positions have changed significantly for the worse in the perception of higher education students of the Department of Cultural Studies. 7 positions according to the perception of higher education students of the Department of Cultural Studies remained without significant changes. The scientific topicality. The article deals with the issues of the dynamics of perception of the organization of the educational process by higher education students of the Department of Cultural Studies of the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture. To research the opinion of higher education students of the Department of Cultural Studies on the organization of the educational process, a survey was conducted in May 2020 and March 2021. The practical significance. According to the results of the study of the dynamics of perception of the organization of the educational process at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, it is possible to offer to pay more attention to the proposals for higher education students to study separate programs abroad. It is also necessary to pay more attention to measures to attract the best teachers, to involve professional practitioners, experts, and representatives of employers in teaching and organizing the educational process.


Author(s):  
Sakeena Ebrahim Traif ◽  
Ibrahim Ehsan Alshihabi ◽  
Abdulrahman Ajlan ◽  
Abdulqader Bubshait ◽  
Anjum Razzaque

Financial technology is encouraging various new practices, such as diminishing of the use of cash in different countries, increasing the rate of use of mobile payments, introducing new algorithms for high-frequency trading across national boundaries, etc., hence attracting significant attention. However, the continues use of fintech is still doubted by scholars. As a result, this chapter aims to comprehend whether, and why, higher education students, who are future entrepreneurs, would be willing, or hesitate to utilize fintech. Data was collected from 350 higher education students from universities in Bahrain. Only those students who had prior experience with cashless online payment systems were the selected target population for this study's online survey. The findings confirmed that risk negatively effects the intent for the continence of using fintech, and convenience baring the strongest positive effect. This study contributes to theoretical and practical implications for future and budding entrepreneurs graduating from the higher education sector of Bahrain.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1280
Author(s):  
Badr K. Aldhmadi ◽  
Ramaiah Itumalla ◽  
Rakesh Kumar ◽  
Bilesha Perera

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) outbreak has had a profound psychological impact on university undergraduates. Feelings, behavioral actions, and depressive symptoms related to COVID-19 in undergraduates in Hail, Saudi Arabia, were assessed using an online survey. Eighteen feelings and six behavioral acts were assessed. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale was used to measure depressive symptomatology. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression techniques were used. The mean age of the participants (n = 418) was 20.2 years (standard deviation (SD) = 1.8 years), and 52.9% (n = 221) were males. Elevated levels of depressive symptoms were reported by 47.1% of male and 51.3% of female participants. Social isolation, loss of interest, obsessive monitoring of symptoms, concentration difficulties, recurrent negative thoughts, and worries about health services emerged as vital negative feelings related to COVID-19 that were expressed by the participants. Younger age (odds ratio (OR) = 0.636, confidence interval (CI) = 0.428–0.946) and coming from the middle-income category (OR = 0.388, CI = 0.151–0.994) were found to be protective factors against developing depressive symptoms. Frequent cleaning of hands, wearing masks when going out, and adherence to social distancing rules were practiced by 71.5% (95% CI = 67.2%–75.8%), 78.7% (95% CI = (74.4%–82.5%) and 66.0% (95% CI = (61.3%–70.5%) of the participants, respectively. These behavioral acts were not associated with the development of depressive symptoms. Although the practice of COVID-19 precautionary measures by the participants was satisfactory, nearly half of the participants reported depressive symptoms. Innovative educational strategies are needed to curb concentration difficulties and social isolation experienced by undergraduates during outbreaks such as COVID-19.


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