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Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Psychological Well-Being of Italian University Students
25 Pages Posted: 14 Oct 2020
More...Abstract
Italy was the first European country to implement a national quarantine, with 71 days of total lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. This study investigated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and psychological well-being of a sample of Italian university students. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the period immediately following the end of lockdown through the administration of a questionnaire on the personal websites of students attending their undergraduate courses at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.The Patient Health Engagement Scale, the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, and the Self-Rating Depression Scale were used to assess engagement, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms, respectively.The sample size was 501, of whom 35.33% were classified as anxious and 72.93% as depressed, although with a prevalence of mild symptoms. Over 90% of respondents reported understanding the preventive measures of the lockdown despite over 70% suffering from the impossibility of seeing their friends and partners. Over 55% of students would have been willing to contribute much more to facing the pandemic. An increase in the occurrences of anxiety was associated with being female, being students of the Rome campus (Central Italy), suffering from the impossibility of attending university, distance from colleagues, and the impossibility of seeing one’s partner. Performing physical activity reduced such a probability. Borderline risk factors for the occurrence of depression were being a student at the Rome campus and suffering from the distance to one’s fellow students.
Funding Statement: No funding was received for this study.
Declaration of Interests: All authors confirm that they have no conflicts of interest or competing interests.
Ethics Approval Statement: The protocol of the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS and by the Internal Board of the University.
Keywords: COVID-19PandemicsMental HealthStudents
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation