Mental Resilience and the Meaning of Life in students at the University of Patras after the end of the restrictive measures of Covid-19

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic, which shocked the entire planet, brought many changes and difficulties to the lives of students. More specifically, the lives of students in Greece were also affected by the adoption of restrictive measures and the suspension of the functioning of educational structures. Individuals try to cope and recover after periods characterized by increased risk, stress, and difficulties by showing adaptability4,8. Mental resilience, i.e. the ability of the individual to recover despite difficulties, seems especially important after the lifting of the restrictive measures for the students who are called to adapt to the new conditions and find or revise the meaning and purpose in their life 9,10. These two concepts are studied in this paper and more specifically in the research in which 141 students of the University of Patras participated. A key research result is the fact that people who stated that they faced a mental health problem showed higher levels of mental resilience than those who stated that they did not. Students over the age of 27 also showed high levels of resilience, while it appeared that gender and whether they had Covid-19 had no effect on the levels of mental resilience either. In conclusion, the levels of mental resilience in the sample were found to be moderate to high as did the levels of meaning in life.