The Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on University Students in Turkey: A Foundation University Case

Abstract

The Problem of the Research: What are the university students’ anxiety levels caused by COVID-19 and what are the effects of this anxiety on the psychology of the students and their opinions about COVID-19? The Aim of the Study: The aim of the study is to reveal the anxiety levels and impact of COVID-19 on the students who have to continue their university education far away from their campuses through online education. Moreover, it also sheds light on the practices intended for the students to be applied for university education after the pandemic. Method: 493 students studying in a foundation university were included in the research. Online surveys were made to the students who were determined with convenience sampling method. The data collection tool consists of two parts. The first part includes questions directed to the demographic features of the participants and their opinions about COVID-19. Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) Scale developed by Spitzer et al. in 2006 and adopted to Turkish by Konkan et al. in 2003 was used in the second part. SPSS 25 program is used for the analysis of the data. Frequency, mean, standard deviation, independent samples t-test, and variance analysis were used among the descriptive statistical methods. Analyzes were made at 95% confidence interval (p < 0.05). Findings: The anxiety levels of the university students were determined to be high as a result of the research. This means there is a significant relation between COVID-19 and the anxiety levels of the university students. It is also determined that the average scores of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale differ according to the gender variable. It is found that the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale scores of the female participants are higher than male participants. As a result, it is determined that the anxiety levels of university students have increased with COVID-19.

Keywords

• covid-19
• university student
• pandemic
• Psychology
• anxiety disorder

References

1. Ahmed, O., Faisal, R. A., Sharker, T., Lee, S. A., & Jobe, M. C. (2020). Adaptation of the Bangla version of the COVID-19 Anxiety Scale. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 1-12. Assessment, R. R. (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the EU/EEA and the UK–ninth update.
2. Bao, Y., Sun, Y., Meng, S., Shi, J., & Lu, L. (2020). 2019-nCoV epidemic: address mental health care to empower society. The Lancet, 395(10224), e37-e38.
3. Bao, Y., Sun, Y., Meng, S., Shi, J., & Lu, L. (2020). 2019-nCoV epidemic: address mental health care to empower society. The Lancet, 395(10224), e37-e38.
4. Beasley, M., Thompson, T., & Davidson, J. (2003). Resilience in response to life stress: the effects of coping style and cognitive hardiness. Personality and Individual differences, 34(1), 77-95.
5. Bifulco, A., Bernazzani, O., Moran, P. M., & Ball, C. (2000). Lifetime stressors and recurrent depression: preliminary findings of the Adult Life Phase Interview (ALPHI). Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 35(6), 264-275.
6. Cao, W., Fang, Z., Hou, G., Han, M., Xu, X., Dong, J., & Zheng, J. (2020). The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China. Psychiatry research, 112934.
7. Craske, M. G., Rauch, S. L., Ursano, R., Prenoveau, J., Pine, D. S., & Zinbarg, R. E. (2011). What is an anxiety disorder?. Focus, 9(3), 369-388.
8. Duan, L., & Zhu, G. (2020). Psychological interventions for people affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(4), 300-302.

9. Elhai, J. D., Yang, H., McKay, D., & Asmundson, G. J. (2020). COVID-19 anxiety symptoms associated with problematic smartphone use severity in Chinese adults. Journal of Affective Disorders.
10. Fazel, M., Hoagwood, K., Stephan, S., & Ford, T. (2014). Mental health interventions in schools in high-income countries. The Lancet Psychiatry, 1(5), 377-387.
11. Hall, R. C., Hall, R. C., & Chapman, M. J. (2008). The 1995 Kikwit Ebola outbreak: lessons hospitals and physicians can apply to future viral epidemics. General hospital psychiatry, 30(5), 446-452.
12. Ho, C. S., Chee, C. Y., & Ho, R. C. (2020). Mental health strategies to combat the psychological impact of COVID-19 beyond paranoia and panic. Ann Acad Med Singapore, 49(1), 1-3.
13. Holmes, E. A., O'Connor, R. C., Perry, V. H., Tracey, I., Wessely, S., Arseneault, L., ... & Ford, T. (2020). Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science. The Lancet Psychiatry.
14. Huang, Y., & Zhao, N. (2020). Generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms and sleep quality during COVID-19 outbreak in China: a web-based cross-sectional survey. Psychiatry research, 112954.
15. Johnson, S. U., Ulvenes, P. G., Øktedalen, T., & Hoffart, A. (2019). Psychometric properties of the GAD-7 in a heterogeneous psychiatric sample. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 1713.
16. Jones, N. M., Thompson, R. R., Schetter, C. D., & Silver, R. C. (2017). Distress and rumor exposure on social media during a campus lockdown. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(44), 11663-11668.
17. Kebudi, R. (2020b). COVID-19 Pandemisi ve Dünyada Onkolojide Etkileri. Sağlık Bilimlerinde İleri Araştırmalar Dergisi, 3(S1), 99-105.
18. Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., McGuire, L., Robles, T. F., & Glaser, R. (2002). Emotions, morbidity, and mortality: new perspectives from psychoneuroimmunology. Annual review of psychology, 53(1), 83-107.
19. Konkan, R., Şenormancı, Ö., Güçlü, O., Aydin, E., & Sungur, M. Z. (2013). Yaygın Anksiyete Bozukluğu-7 (YAB-7) Testi Türkçe Uyarlaması, Geçerlik ve Güvenirliği. Archives of Neuropsychiatry/Noropsikiatri Arsivi, 50(1).
20. Köroğlu, E. (2000). Amerikan Psikiyatri Birliği. DSMIV-TR Tanı Ölçütleri, 2, 151-63.
21. Labrague, L. J., & De los Santos, J. A. A. (2020). COVID‐19 anxiety among front‐line nurses: Predictive role of organisational support, personal resilience and social support. Journal of nursing management.
22. Lai, J., Ma, S., Wang, Y., Cai, Z., Hu, J., Wei, N., ... & Tan, H. (2020). Factors associated with mental health outcomes among health care workers exposed to coronavirus disease 2019. JAMA network open, 3(3), e203976-e203976.
23. Li, S. W., Wang, Y., Yang, Y. Y., Lei, X. M., & Yang, Y. F. (2020). Analysis of influencing factors of anxiety and emotional disorders in children and adolescents during home isolation during the epidemic of novel coronavirus pneumonia. Chinese Journal of Child Health, 1-9.
24. Maaravi, Y., & Heller, B. (2020). Not all worries were created equal: The case of COVID-19 anxiety. Public Health, 185, 243-245.
25. Moreno, E., Muñoz-Navarro, R., Medrano, L. A., González-Blanch, C., Ruiz-Rodríguez, P., Limonero, J. T., ... & Moriana, J. A. (2019). Factorial invariance of a computerized version of the GAD-7 across various demographic groups and over time in primary care patients. Journal of affective disorders, 252, 114-121.
26. Pfefferbaum, B. and North, C. S. (2020). Mental health and the Covid-19 pandemic. New England Journal of Medicine.
27. Roy, D., Tripathy, S., Kar, S. K., Sharma, N., Verma, S. K., & Kaushal, V. (2020). Study of knowledge, attitude, anxiety & perceived mental healthcare need in Indian population during COVID-19 pandemic. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 102083.
28. Sher, L. (2020). COVID-19, anxiety, sleep disturbances and suicide. Sleep Medicine.
29. Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Archives of internal medicine, 166(10), 1092-1097.
30. T.C. Sağlık Bakanlığı Korona Tablosu. https://covid19.saglik.gov.tr/ Erişim Tarihi: 1 Haziran 2020
31. Toussaint, A., Hüsing, P., Gumz, A., Wingenfeld, K., Härter, M., Schramm, E., & Löwe, B. (2020). Sensitivity to change and minimal clinically important difference of the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7). Journal of Affective Disorders.
32. Wang, C., Pan, R., Wan, X., Tan, Y., Xu, L., Ho, C. S., & Ho, R. C. (2020). Immediate psychological responses and associated factors during the initial stage of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic among the general population in China. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(5), 1729.
33. World Health Organization. (2020). WHO statement regarding cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. Beijing: WHO, 9.
34. World Health Organization. (2020a). https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1 Erişim Tarihi: 1 Haziran 2020.
35. Xiao, C. (2020). A novel approach of consultation on 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19)-related psychological and mental problems: structured letter therapy. Psychiatry investigation, 17(2), 175.
36. Yang, Y., Li, W., Zhang, Q., Zhang, L., Cheung, T., & Xiang, Y. T. (2020). Mental health services for older adults in China during the COVID-19 outbreak. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(4), e19.
37. Yüksek Öğretim Kurumu (YÖK) (2020a). https://www.yok.gov.tr/Sayfalar/Haberler/2020/coronavirus_bilgilendirme_1.aspx Erişim Tarihi: 1 Haziran 2020.
38. Yüksek Öğretim Kurumu (YÖK) (2020b). https://www.yok.gov.tr/Sayfalar/Haberler/2020/universitelerde-uygulanacak-uzaktan-egitime-iliskin-aciklama.aspx. Erişim Tarihi: 1 Haziran 2020.