Coping with COVID-19: The Strategies Adapted by Pakistani Students to Overcome Implications.

Gul Muhammad Baloch,Heba Bakr Khoshaim,Sheela Sundarasen,Areej Al Sukayt,Karuthan Chinna,Laareb Gul Baloch,Syed Far Abid Hossain,Mohammad Nurunnabi,Kamilah Kamaludin

doi:10.3390/ijerph18041799

Abstract

COVID-19 has speedily immersed the globe with 72+ million cases and 1.64 million deaths, in a span of around one year, disturbing and deteriorating almost every sphere of life. This study investigates how students in Pakistan have coped with the COVID-19. Zung’s self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) was used for measuring anxiety and the coping strategies were measured on four strategies i.e., seeking social support, humanitarian, acceptance, and mental disengagement. Among 494 respondents, 61% were females and 77.3% of the students were in the age group of 19–25 years. The study findings indicate that approximately 41 percent of students are experiencing some level of anxiety, including 16% with severe to extreme levels. Seeking social support seemed to be the least preferred coping strategy and that female students seek social support, humanitarian, and acceptance coping strategies more than males. Students used both emotion-based and problem-based coping strategies. The variables of gender, age, ethnicity, level and type of study, and living arrangement of the students were associated with usage of coping strategies. Findings showing that students do not prefer to seek social support. The study outcomes will provide basic data for university policies in Pakistan and the other countries with same cultural contexts to design and place better mental health provisions for students.

Highlights

IntroductionThe diseases transmitted to humans through animals are known as zoonotic diseases
While many studies have explored the psychological effects of the pandemic to the society in general, limited studies focused on the mental health of the youth, the university students in Pakistan
This study examined how university students in Pakistan cope with the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Introduction

The diseases transmitted to humans through animals are known as zoonotic diseases. Jones [1] suggests that “majority of emerging infectious diseases (71.8%) originate in wildlife and are increasing significantly over time.”. CDC [2] estimates that “more than 6 out of 10 known infectious diseases in people can be spread from animals, and 3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals.”. Asserts that “globally, about one billion cases of illness and millions of deaths occur every year from zoonoses.”. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, a zoonotic disease, peaked to 72,851,747 and caused 1,643,339 deaths globally as of 17 December 2020, in a span of about one year since its first report [4]. Director General of WHO declared this as a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (PHEIC) on 30th January 2020; the

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