Mental health assessment of students during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The current study intended to assess the mental health of students during COVID-19. In this context, the study was conducted among the students of SKUAST-K. A descriptive survey method was used to carry out the study. Under the jurisdiction of SKUAST-K, Shalimar, Srinagar, Faculty of Fisheries was selected by purposive sampling method. The target population of the study comprised of the students of Faculty of Fisheries, Rangil, Ganderbal with total population size of 193.The sample of study constituted 100 students. Stratified random sampling method was used for current study and the samples were taken proportionally with the total number of undergraduate and postgraduate students, with 62 U.G students, 25 masters students and 13 Ph.D. students respectively. A self-administered questionnaire was formed to gather information from the respondents. The data collected was analysed using standard statistical tools like descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage and inferential statistics such as Chi-square test. SPSS version 20.0 and PAST 4.0 was used for data analysis. The results from the study indicated that majority of the respondents had risk and fear of getting infected with COVID-19, were worried about their family members, had fear of losing their relatives or friends due to COVID-19. Besides, the students expressed that they had lost concentration and interest in their studies, faced anxiety over uncertainty about their academic calendar, were concerned that the COVID-19 outbreak would affect their exam performance and felt that the pandemic had left an impact on the careers of current year university graduates.