Abstract
This paper draws upon the concept of recreancy to examine the mental well-being of university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Briefly, recreancy is loss of societal trust that results when institutional actors can no longer be counted on to perform their responsibilities. Our study of mental well-being and recreancy focuses on the role of universities and government regulators within the education sector. We surveyed 600 UK students attending 161 different public higher education providers in October 2020 during a time when many UK students were isolated in their residences and engaged in online learning. We assessed student well-being using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (scored 7–35) and found the mean score to be 19.9 [95% confidence interval (CI) 19.6, 20.2]. This level of well-being indicates that a significant proportion of UK students face low levels of mental well-being. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicates that high recreancy—measured as a low trust in universities and the government—is associated with low levels of mental well-being across the student sample. While these findings are suggestive, they are also important and we suggest that government and university leaders should not only work to increase food and housing security during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also consider how to combat various sector trends that might intensify recreancy.
Highlights
The negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental well-being and mental health of university students is serious and a growing concern [1,2,3]
The findings presented in this research are drawn from a cross-sectional sample of UK university students administered during the Covid-19 pandemic
The purpose of the current study is to present a conceptual model of student mental well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic
Summary
The negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental well-being and mental health of university students is serious and a growing concern [1,2,3]. In this work we draw upon a social-psychological perspective to argue that contemporary studies of student mental well-being should account for student trust in their university and government to ensure their mental well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic. To make this connection we draw upon Freudenburg’s [(11), p. 915–916] concept of recreancy that we employ by measuring perceptions of trust in universities and government regulators to understand risk management associated with low levels of student well-being during Covid-19. The purpose of this research is to determine whether and how student levels of trust in two important actors in the education sector during Covid-19 may impact student mental well-being
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