Psychological Perception of Students During COVID-19 Outbreak in India

Abstract

Background and Objectives: COVID-19 is a communicable disease which has tremendous outburst globally. It can be easily transmittable from one person to another. Government of India also instructed to all educational department to lock down. Students are also worried about their studies and further educational activities due to this pandemic. Most of the research showed that, students have increased stress and anxiety level in similar epidemics. The primary aim of this study was to assess the anxiety level of students during this COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: A non-experimental-survey design was used for this research study. For data collection, online tool was prepared which consist of two part, first part deals with demographic data and second part is having 5 point Likert scale with 12 items. Non probability snowball sampling technique was used to find out the potential participant. Tool was shared to potential participants via online social media applications. After screening, total 1530 samples were selected for this study. Results: Findings show that 76.44% students were having severe anxiety and 23.66% students were having moderate anxiety. Education, online classes provided by online institution and duration of online classes were associated with anxiety. Interpretation and Conclusion: Health education for reducing the mental stress and promoting preventive behavior may require various strategy. If a person feels that psychological pressure at its peak level, then psychological assistance can be taken to prevent from further complications. At the end, investigators concluding that mental health is also as important as physical health.

Keywords: COVID-19, Pandemic and Epidemic