The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Italian University Students’ Mental Health: Changes across the Waves
| Autor: | Sheila Merola, Micaela Di Consiglio, Alessandro Couyoumdjian, Tiziana Pascucci, Cristiano Violani |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Universities Health Toxicology and Mutagenesis education Context (language use) Anxiety Article psychological distress Psychoticism Pandemic medicine Humans university students Students Pandemics Depression (differential diagnoses) Government Depression SARS-CoV-2 Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health COVID-19 Mental health help-seeking behavior Mental Health Italy Communicable Disease Control Medicine Female mental health medicine.symptom Psychology Clinical psychology |
| Zdroj: | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 9897, p 9897 (2021) Volume 18 Issue 18 |
| ISSN: | 1660-4601 1661-7827 |
| Popis: | To reduce the spread of Covid-19, the Italian government imposed a rigid lockdown and, for a whole year, continued to declare stringent rules to curb the community spread. This study provides an overview of university students’ symptomatology and help-seeking behaviour before and during the pandemic. It aims to evaluate the impact of the different phases of the pandemic on students’ mental health. We collected data in four-time points between March 2019 and March 2021. A total of 454 students (F = 85 M = 15) were included in the study. Students answered a socio-demographic and a standardized questionnaire (i.e., SCL-90-R) to evaluate a broad range of symptomatology. The results suggest that students experienced moderate to severe levels of depressive, obsessive-compulsive and anxiety symptomatology. About 14% of the sample met the criteria for at least one mental health disorder, but most were not receiving mental health care. During the lockdown, compared with other phases, female students reported worse symptoms in the obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism dimensions. The increasing symptomatology disappeared after the lifting of the lockdown. The results showed no difference in the male groups. Preventive and support strategies should be improved in the university context. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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