Anxiety, depression, stress, and resilience among undergraduate nursing students at Al-Quds university: the impact of war started on October 7 in Palestine

Abstract

BackgroundThe current outbreak of war in Palestine on the 7th of October 2023, heightened concerns about mental health and well-being of individuals, particularly undergraduate students in Palestine. Such traumatic experiences and political conflict did affect the social, economic, psychological, and academic status of university students in Palestine, in particular, nursing students. However, resilience is one of the moderators which may positively decrease the severity of those negative war-related symptoms.AimThe study aimed to examine the moderation effect of resilience on the relationship between sociodemographic and personal characteristics and depression, anxiety, and stress among undergraduate nursing students in Palestine.Design and methodsA quantitative, descriptive-correlational design utilized to investigate anxiety, depression, stress, and resilience among nursing students. A convenience sample of 325 nursing students recruited from Al-Quds University were asked to respond to a self-administered questionnaire.ResultsA total of 325 nursing students participated in this study. The analysis showed that the majority of the participants were experiencing extremely severe anxiety levels (43.7%, n = 142), while 25.5% (n = 83) were experiencing extremely severe depression and 14.5% (n = 47) were experiencing high-stress levels compared to 60% (n = 195) of the students were at their normal resilience level. There were statistically significant differences in the resilience based on sex (t323 = 2.994, p = .003). Knowing that males have higher resilience mean scores (M = 3.06, SD = 0.35) than females (M = 2.93, SD = 0.41) indicates higher resilience in males than females. After performing two steps of hierarchical regression, the results revealed that resilience negatively moderated the relationship between sociodemographics and depression, and anxiety.ConclusionThis study offers valuable insights into the mental health status of undergraduate nursing students in Palestine during the war. The results indicated that resilience is one of the pivotal moderators that may buffer anxiety and depression. The findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to address the diverse mental health needs of this population, considering the complex interplay of individual, demographic, and contextual factors. Future research should continue to explore these dynamics and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions promoting mental well-being during conflict.