Abstract
Governments worldwide have imposed lockdowns in their countries to restrict unnecessary movement and curb the spread and transmission of the Covid-19 as a mitigation measure. The education sector has also implemented rapid changes, and this has transformed the operational procedures for both students and lecturers. As the pandemic has progressed, its emotional and psychological toll is equally bearing on students, leading to lockdown fatigue. This study aimed to investigate the level of lockdown-induced fatigue and its correlation with personal resilience and coping skills among university students in Iraq. This study used quantitative methods of research using a cross-sectional study design. A questionnaire survey was distributed electronically among 819 university students in Iraq. The study used three standardised scales: the lockdown fatigue scale, brief resilience scale, and coping behaviours questionnaire for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis were done using SPSS. Overall, students indicated a high level of lockdown fatigue with a mean score of 33.48out of 50. Fear of personal safety and the wellbeing of the family was the most fear expressed by the students. The ability to go through stressful times and unpleasant events was the most common worry among the students. Female, urbanised, and science field students were the most students who suffered from lockdown-induced fatigue. However, positive coping behaviours and personal resilience were significantly correlated with decreasing fatigue levels during the lockdown period. Level of lockdown fatigue accelerated in an alarming stage among university students in Iraq. Hence, students need to build their emotional resilience and learn how to navigate surviving hard times and bounce back after a loss. This could be facilitated by counselling services being availed to educational and social institutions to benefit university students.
Highlights
The Covid-19 pandemic poses a global health emergency, and it has rendered significant economic and health problems
Despite evidence that young people are more likely to develop fatigue due to lockdown measures, there are no studies on how individual resilience and coping skills reduce fatigue in university students conducted in the Middle East, in Iraq
Lockdown fatigue is a psychological phenomenon that has stemmed from the Covid-19 pandemic and increasingly affects students (Labrague, 2021)
Summary
The Covid-19 pandemic poses a global health emergency, and it has rendered significant economic and health problems. Lockdown fatigue is described as the impact on an individual dealing with uncertainty, anxiety, emotions, feelings, and the lack of control over the future due to the Covid pandemic and imposed lockdowns (Labrague & Ballad, 2020). People have had to change their operational procedures to comply with the regulations set by the government to contain the virus, such as lockdown and closure of non-essential facilities. This has cast a shadow of uncertainty on how the future will be like for everyone if the pandemic ends (Goldstein et al, 2021)
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