Grief and bereavement during college: Tensions associated with loss in university students from Lima during de COVID-19 pandemic

There is a strong association between soyfoods or soybean product consumption and adolescent health, but there are few studies on the association between soyfoods or soybean product consumption and psychological symptoms among university students. To this end, this study investigated the association between soyfoods or soybean products consumption and psychological symptoms among Chinese university students and analyzed the association between them. A three-stage stratified whole-group sampling method was used to administer questionnaires on soyfoods or soybean products consumption and psychological symptoms to 7742 university students in China. Self-assessment questionnaires were also administered to confounding variables such as basic demographic information, family status, parental education, body mass index (BMI), and moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA). The chi-square test, one-way ANOVA, and logistic regression analysis were used to explore the association and differences between soyfoods or soybean products consumption and psychological symptoms. The proportion of Chinese university students' soyfoods or soybean products consumption in ≤one time/week, two-four times/week, and ≥five times/week were 38.81%, 40.24%, and 20.95%, respectively. University students' psychological symptoms problem detection rate was 16.22%. The detection rate of psychological symptoms was lower among university male students (14.75%) than female students (17.35%), and the difference was statistically significant (χ2 = 9.525, p < 0.01). After adjusting for relevant covariates, students with soyfoods or soybean products consumption ≤one time/week (OR = 1.83, 95% CI:1.52, 2.21) had a higher risk of psychological symptoms compared to university students with soyfoods or soybean products consumption ≥five time/week (p < 0.01). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese university students had lower consumption of soyfoods or soybean products and a higher detection rate of psychological symptoms. There was a negative association between soyfoods or soybean products consumption and psychological symptoms. Our study provides a scientific reference for the government and educational decision-making authorities and suggests that education on eating behavior and dietary guidance should be emphasized among university students in the future to maintain a reasonable consumption of soyfoods or soybean products for better physical and mental health development.

The COVID-19 pandemic raised many challenges for university staff and students, including the need to work from home, which resulted in a greater reliance on technology. We collected questionnaire data from university students (N = 894) in three European countries: Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Data were collected between 7th April 2020 and 19th June 2020, representing a period covering the first lockdown and university closures in these countries and across Europe generally. We tested the hypotheses that technology-related stressors (techno-overload, work-home conflict, techno-ease, techno-reliability, techno-sociality, and pace of change) would be associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, and that coping styles (problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidance) would mediate these relationships. Results showed significant positive associations between techno-overload, work-home conflict and anxiety and depressive symptoms, and significant negative associations between techno-reliability, techno-ease and anxiety and depressive symptoms. A significant negative association was found between techno-sociality and depressive symptoms but not anxiety symptoms. No evidence was found for an association between pace of change and anxiety or depressive symptoms. Multiple mediation analyses revealed significant direct effects of techno-overload, work-home conflict and techno-ease on anxiety symptoms, and of work-home conflict and techno-ease on depressive symptoms. Work-home conflict had significant indirect effects on anxiety and depressive symptoms through avoidance coping. Techno-overload and techno-ease both had significant indirect effects on anxiety symptoms through problem- and emotion-focused coping. Techno-ease also had a significant indirect effect on depressive symptoms through problem-focused coping. The findings add to the body of evidence on technostress amongst university students and provide knowledge on how technostress translates through coping strategies into anxious and depressive symptoms during the disruption caused by the outbreak of a pandemic disease.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant negative effect on university students’ mental health worldwide. The pandemic has resulted in individuals experiencing increased levels of anxiety and stress as well as intensified concerns about the future due to a rise in uncertainty. To eliminate the anxiety and stress caused by uncertainty, individuals who have high cognitive closure needs are strongly motivated to achieve certainty and seek answers, even if the decisions they make in the process are inappropriate or even irrational. This study attempts to analyze the influence of anxiety and stress on university students’ academic involution behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic through the mediating effect of the need for cognitive closure. Analyzing the survey data collected from 402 university students from 3 different universities through the mediating effect model and path analysis with latent variable (PA-LV), our results indicate that: (1) The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased the levels of anxiety and stress experienced by university students. The path coefficient of the perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 to perceived emotions (including anxiety and stress) was 0.352 (p < 0.01), (2) anxiety and stress significantly and positively affect academic involution behavior. For each unit of increase in the scores of anxiety and stress, the scores of academic involution behavior increased by 0.408 (p < 0.01) and 0.398 (p < 0.01) units, respectively, and (3) The need for cognitive closure had a complete and partial mediating effect on the relationship between the perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 and academic involution behavior, as well as anxiety and academic involution behavior, respectively. The results of PA-LV showed that the mediating effect values were 0.106 and 0.044, respectively. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet come to an end and so clarifying the relationship between anxiety and academic involution behavior will assist university students to optimize the relationship in their own subjective situations, to establish good learning habits, and reduce psychological distress.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown instigated serious mental health conditions. So far, the UAE data on mental health problems due to this pandemic outbreak is still scarce. The objective of this study was to identify the prevalent psychological difficulties experienced by university students, faculty members, and staff during COVID-19 lockdown and the coping strategies used.Methods: A cross-sectional design was used to collect data from 737 participants using an online electronic survey. Participants included students, faculty members, and staff from universities in the UAE. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) was used to measure general distress, Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ-16) was used to measure worry, and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS-48) was administered to measure coping strategies used by participants during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Data were collected during May to June 2020.Results: The results indicated that 60.4% of students, 57.4% of the faculty members, and 52.3% of the staff experienced mild psychiatric problems. About 32.9% of students, 33.7% of the faculty members, and 25% of the staff experienced high levels of worry during the COVID-19 lockdown. Changes in eating patterns, worsening chronic health problems, change in sleep patterns, and concentration difficulties were reported. Furthermore, significant differences were observed in worry and coping strategies among participants. Women use more avoidance and emotion-focused coping compared to men.Conclusion: It was concluded that COVID-19 lockdown has negatively impacted university faculty, staff, and students in terms of health behavior, psychological and physical health.

Past research revealed concerns over the depressive symptoms and psychological well-being of university students. The present study utilizes a stratified random sampling to examine the role of perceived social support on psychological well-being between depressed and non-depressed university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. This study recruited a total of 244 university students from different universities across Malaysia from November 2021 to July 2022 through social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. A prevalence rate of 50.4% of university students was found to present significant depressive symptoms. There is a significant correlation between perceived social support and psychological wellbeing (r = 0.769, p &lt; 0.05). Non-depressed university students reported significantly higher on their perceived social support and psychological well-being than university students with significant depressive symptoms with values of p&lt;0.001 and p&lt;0.043. Among depressed university students, perceived social support from friends and significant others was reported to be significantly lower than non-depressed university students with a value of p&lt;0.001 and p&lt;0.023. Overall, the present study discovered that a higher level of perceived social support could predict greater psychological well-being and reduced depressive symptoms among university students. Hence, perceived social support should be promoted as an effective intervention for university students due to its accessibility and cost. Future research should look into the effectiveness of perceived social support and other psychological resources for university students with different mental health concerns.

PURPOSE: Although the COVID-19 pandemic has had a catastrophic effect on economic activities worldwide, the paradoxical phenomenon of this black swan situation may be found to facilitate entrepreneurial intentions. This study aims to investigate Thai university students’ perceptions of their entrepreneurial aspirations during the times of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODOLOGY: Drawing upon social cognitive career theory, this research investigates the profound linkage of university students’ COVID-19 perceptions and attitudes towards situations for self-believing in the adaptation for entrepreneurship. A valid sample of 798 collected from eight provinces, eight districts, and eight cities throughout Thailand was included for further analysis using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and Process Macro Model 6. FINDINGS: University students’ COVID-19 pandemic perceptions influence their self-efficacy in situation adaptations and perceived desirability towards individual-level entrepreneurial intentions. Interestingly, self-efficacy and desirability towards entrepreneurship act as serial mediating factors, towards the mediated relationship between attitude towards the situation, COVID-19 perception, and university students’ entrepreneurial intentions. IMPLICATIONS: The results of this research can add to entrepreneurship literature and additional model testing has also been proposed. Besides, practitioners and researchers could collaborate with governors to cultivate entrepreneurial trajectories based on research findings. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) can rationalize an academic student’s career choice of entrepreneurship by considering their perception of the start-up processes during COVID-19. Future research can also test findings on a representative sample at the national level.

The effects of Covid-19 have been felt worldwide and one population that are of increasing concern are university students. University students have endured unique and drastic changes to their everyday and academic lives. It is important to understand how university students in different parts of the world have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and how it has affected their mental health? A cross-sectional study was conducted during the first wave of Covid-19, in May 2020 with 2,006 university students from the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain. Participants were recruited online and were asked to complete a series of standardised measures of psychological distress, anxiety, flourishing and wellbeing. Attitudes towards Covid-19 were measured using a new scale. The factor structure and reliability of this new scale was confirmed using this European sample. Results indicated that all university students were suffering from poor mental health, considerably below pre-pandemic norms. There were many geographical differences in the way that university students perceived the Covid19 pandemic, in terms of their fears, anxieties, loneliness and positivity. There were also significant mental health comparisons between students from the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain. Student beliefs that their government had provided effective leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic were strongly related to numerous mental health outcomes. A picture of university students’ mental health is provided and discussed. Geographical comparisons are discussed, as are the implications for practice and future directions.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-02854-0.

The aim of this study was to examine how the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic affected the communality among university personnel and students. Herein, we report the findings from a northern Finnish university in which student (mean number of participants, n = 339) and staff (mean number of participants, n = 133) perceptions and experiences were surveyed. The data (gathered between March 2020 and June 2021 in 7 surveys) included responses to questions about satisfaction with remote and hybrid work and communality. In addition, as the focus of the analysis in this research, we collected the participants’ descriptions of their experiences and thoughts through open-ended questions. The sense of communality among the students, students and teachers, and staff differed, but the appreciation for flexible interactions and availability was similar between the groups. This study discusses the importance of retaining a sense of communality during and after abnormal times on the basis of the reported findings.

This chapter focuses on the attitudes of Slovenian university professors and students towards distance learning and its didactical perspectives. The sample consisted of 992 university students and 179 university professors who have completed an anonymous online survey. Results from the T-test show five statistically significant differences in attitudes of Slovenian university professors and students. As far as the Spearman's rho coefficients analysis computed on the sample of university professors are concerned, the results show that all items except one have very strong associations among variables, whereas the Spearman's rho coefficient analysis computed on the sample of university students show strong associations among all variables, which is not the case regarding the university professors' sample. Such results imply that a lot will need to be done in the fields of perceptions regarding distance learning, mostly regarding the roles of teachers and their obligations in case of distance teaching and learning, especially in case there should be another pandemic or school closure.

COVID-19 has a serious impact on people’s physical health and mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted an increasing deterioration of university students’ quality of life and mental health due to several factors. The COVID-19 pandemic forced university students to take online classes, which may have bad impacts on students’ learning. In addition, the students lost many job opportunities during the pandemic. Faced with employment and study pressure and worried about the epidemic, university students were prone to increased overall negative emotion, anxiety and depression. Our study aims to conduct a timely assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life and mental health of University students. We conducted a cross sectional study using an online interview survey in students at public universities in Greece to better understand the effects of the pandemic on their quality of life and mental health. Three questionnaires were used (WHOQOL-BREF, IES-R and HADS). The data were analyzed with IBM SPSS 26. 1.266 university students from public Greek Universities participated in the study, 73.1% of which were female, 26,3% were male. We observed that 55,8% had a score lower in psychological domain and 52,3% in social domain of WHOQOL-BREF. Also 46.6% of the respondents had a score of 37+ on the IES-R questionnaire, 45% of the respondents had abnormal results regarding anxiety and 33.6% had abnormal results regarding depression. Due to the long-lasting pandemic and onerous measures such as lockdown and stay-at-home orders, the COVID-19 pandemic brings negative impacts on University education and quality of life of students. The findings of our study highlight the urgent need to develop interventions and preventive strategies to address the quality of life and mental health of University students. Key messages • There is a need for preventative measures for university students to ensure that their mental health and quality of life do not suffer. • Female students reached higher levels of anxiety in the COVID-19 pandemic period.

This study assessed the internet surfing behaviours and digital health literacy (DHL) among university students in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was guided by three major objectives: (1) examine the online information searching behaviours of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) investigate the thematic areas university students searched during COVID-19, and (3) examine the DHL level of university students. The study conveniently sampled 1014 university students to solicit their responses through questionnaire administration. Using frequency and percent counts, multiple response analysis, as well as mean and standard deviation, the study revealed that the predominant platforms university students used were search engines (n = 954, 94.1%), social media (n = 950, 93.7%), and WhatsApp (n = 950, 93.7%). Predominant themes among the thematic areas university students searched during COVID-19 were symptoms of COVID-19 (n = 701, 81.7%), COVID-19 vaccines (n = 689, 80.3%), and transmission routes of the coronavirus (n = 664, 77.4%). Further, other results showed that students enrolled in health-related programmes showed significantly higher levels of DHL compared to those in non-health-related programmes. The findings suggest the need to implement health education measures to strengthen students’ health literacy capacities and their DHL ability. This finding requires governments and health authorities to implement evidence-informed health communication strategies to provide valid and reliable health information concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and support individuals to make health-promoting decisions.

The pandemic has affected people's mental health and university students are considered one of the most vulnerable groups, encouraging the development of psychological interventions that can minimize the suffering and illness of this public. Among the possibilities of intervention, virtual clinical listening groups were created which, during the period of social isolation, had the purpose of opening up a listening space for university students suffering from emotional distress. The focus of the group meetings was how university students were experiencing the pandemic, as well as the consequences of this experience. In this article, we discuss virtual clinical listening groups as a form of psychological intervention in the mental health care of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic at a university in northeastern Brazil. This is a qualitative study that began with 274 university students and 5 psychologists who facilitated the listening groups. We used as instruments the registration forms, the participation records of the virtual clinical listening groups and the field diaries written by the facilitators after each meeting. We described in the results the collected data and, from the field diaries, the themes that emerged in the various meetings were listed and analyzed in dialogue with the literature. At the end of the psychological screening process, 117 students participated in the 17 organized groups, with an average of 8 university students per group. Among the main motivations for participating in virtual clinical listening groups, we highlight: the desire to share experiences, a search for control of anxiety, depression and stress, care for mental health, a willingness to promote listening to psychological support for themselves and for others, and self-knowledge. We discuss the nuances in the process of forming the listening groups and the characteristics of the participants, as well as a central element of the group process, which is the establishment of bonds and mutual help among the participants. Feeling vulnerable and the fear of contamination is an element of suffering and, above all, of stress experienced by university students. The group presented itself as an alternative of mutual care in the pandemic context.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected physical and mental health. Since its commencement in 2020, social distancing has become the “new normal”. Temporary lockdowns and distance learning have disproportionately affected young adults, including university students. To identify effects of the pandemic on university students’ physical and mental health and learning, this empirical study included eight universities in Heidelberg, Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. Data was collected in May and June 2020. The self-administered survey was filled by 1,246 university students. 917 students completed the survey in full. 80.6% were bachelor students (n = 738), the mean semester was 3.8 and mean age was 23.1 years. 51.8% (n = 472) were female students and 47.4% (n = 432) male students. 38.5% (n = 352) stated a deterioration in physical health and 53.1% (n = 485) in mental health. From 0 to 10, students rated mean levels of stress highest due to social distancing (5.6), spending most time at home (5.0) and e-learning (4.5). Compared to male students, female students’ mental health worsened significantly (58.7% vs. 46.8%). A logistic regression analysis identified gender having a significant effect on university students’ stress levels: males seemed to have a lower risk of moderate to high levels of stress compared to females (odds ratio = 0.698; 95% CI = 0.515 to 0.945). Age, city of university and semester did not show a significant effect. The results are important to both regional and international audiences as university students face similar physical and mental health challenges due to the pandemic and its public health measures. Low-threshold initiatives are needed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. These may include measures to reinforce students’ locus of control, sense of belonging, relaxation and mindfulness as well as (online) counselling services. Gender-specific differences must be taken into account.

PurposeSuffering during events such as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens university students’ physical and psychological health. Given the literature indicating the protective role of resilience and social support, the current study explored the mediating and moderating roles of social support in the association between resilience and prosocial behavior among university students in mainland China during COVID-19 mitigation.MethodsWe conducted an online survey using convenience sampling from 23rd February to 3rd March 2020 among Chinese university students who had encountered home-quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Self-report scales were used to measure levels of resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale), social support (the Social Support Scale), and prosocial behavior (Prosocial Tendencies Measure). A total of 313 university students participated in this online survey. Hayes PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to test the hypothesized mediating and moderating effects of social support in the relationship between resilience and prosocial behavior.ResultsPearson’s correlations analysis showed that all outcomes of interest were positively associated. Importantly, social support (subjective support, objective support, and support utilization) mediated the indirect link of resilience with prosocial behavior. Furthermore, moderation analyses indicated that support utilization played a moderating role in this link. Support utilization may reduce the negative influence of COVID-19 on university students’ prosocial behavior and serve as a protective factor between resilience and prosocial behavior in highly stressful contexts.ConclusionOur findings enrich research on prosocial behavior by investigating the potential internal and external variables that influence such behavior during periods of suffering. Findings also provide evidence for the need to promote university students’ prosocial behavior.

University students are in a phase during which they have various experiences typical in the academic environment and face situations that require adaptability and influence value formation. In the abnormal situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, university students’ life rhythms, academic, interpersonal, and financial situations have changed drastically. In those situational cues, the value-based behavior of university students may have changed. Values provide purpose and direction for each action. Furthermore, values are situational goals that lead to specific real-time behavior. Therefore, this study aimed to examine whether there is a two-way influencing relationship between value-based behavior and scheduled activities of university students at two points in time (before the COVID-19 pandemic and during the COVID-19 pandemic). 417 university students answered a questionnaire at Times 1 and 2 (with a 1-year interval). We examined the relationship between value-based behavior and scheduled activities using a longitudinal cross-lagged model analysis. The findings of this study indicate that promoting value-based behaviors is positively associated with the frequency of value-based behaviors and scheduled activities even during anomalies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in anomalous situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing value-based behaviors such as behavioral activation can improve the lives of university students. Future intervention studies should show whether behavioral activation is effective in decreasing depressive symptoms among university students even in abnormal situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.