Abstract
College students are among the most strongly affected populations by the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic because of uncertainty regarding academic success, future careers, and social life during their study period. Their mental health and behavior may dramatically be impacted. The study examined an unrealistic optimism of Israeli college students in assessing the health, security, and economic risks during the pandemic, and the contributions of these perceived risks to the prediction of psychological coping responses, such as well-being, and coping suppressing response of anxiety, expressed during this pandemic. Using social networks, a questionnaire was disseminated to students during the third lockdown that was implemented in Israel because of the pandemic. Depressive and anxiety symptoms, perceived threats, resilience, well-being, hope, and morale were measured using a structured quantitative questionnaire. First, we hypothesized that the three perceived risks would be inversely rated, so perceived health risk would be rated lowest, and perceived economic risk would be rated highest. The second and third hypotheses claimed that psychological coping responses articulated along this pandemic would be predicted by all these perceived risks, as well as the observance of pandemic precaution rules. The fourth hypothesis suggested that the three investigated perceived risks will positively and significantly correlate with each other. The results generally supported the hypotheses and indicated that the unrealistic optimism process was employed quite consistently by the participating students.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has a dramatic impact on the mental health and behavior of people
Hypothesis 1 stated that the assessment of the three perceived risks by the investigated student sample will reflect the unrealistic optimism effect, in which the higher the objective risk, the lower will be the rating of the perceived risk
Unrealistic optimism should be expected in perceived assessments of the health risk of COVID-19 pandemic, as well as in coping with other related risk conditions
Summary
The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has a dramatic impact on the mental health and behavior of people. The study was conducted at the beginning of the year 2021, after a peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which an overall lockdown policy was directed, requiring the entire Israeli population, except for employees in vital services, to remain at home 24/7. The decrease of this pandemic was most likely achieved due to a national COVID-19 vaccination campaign (Leshem and Wilder-Smith, 2021). After declining between the lockdowns, the rate of unemployment insurance recipients rose again during the second lockdown and reached 240,000 additional recipients
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