Evaluation of Undergraduate Students' Anxiety Level About Covid-19 Pandemic Process

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the anxiety level of dental students about the Covid-19 pandemic process in terms of gender and education levels with a scale to be developed within the scope of the research.
441 dental students studying at Gazi University in the 2020/2021 academic year participated in the survey. The Pandemic Process Anxiety Scale was developed to determine the level of anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic process. An online survey portal was used to participate of students. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were performed for the construct validity of the scale. The data were analyzed with Independent Samples t-test.
The female students had significantly higher anxiety levels about the transition to face-to-face education than male students. Male students had significantly higher levels of financial and occupational anxiety for the future than females. It was observed that preclinical students had higher anxiety levels than clinical students regarding socialization and distance education process. However, the anxiety levels of preclinical students were significantly lower than clinical students regarding face-to-face education.
Clinical students and females were more anxious about face-to-face education during pandemic, whereas the preclinical students had higher anxiety levels about socialisation and distance education process.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• dental student
• anxiety
• education
• online learning

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