Practical and psychological challenges faced by Wuhan graduates after COVID-19 was controlled

Abstract

Introduction: This study seeks to understand the reality and psychological difficulties faced by university graduates in Wuhan after the COVID-19 epidemic was controlled. Methods: A total of 6,417 graduate students were surveyed through an online questionnaire from late May to early June 2020. The questionnaire asked questions on depression, anxiety, insomnia, and suicidal behavior. In addition, self-administered epidemic-related questionnaires consisting of eight items were collected from university graduates. Results: Participants’ positive detection rates for depression, anxiety, insomnia, and suicidal behavior are 13.4%, 8.3%, 4.4%, and 12.1%, respectively. The three biggest challenges faced by graduates are future development, economic difficulties, and employment problems. Conclusion: The detectable rate of depression, anxiety, and insomnia is low, and the detectable rate of suicide symptoms should be given more attention. The biggest problem of this group is their future development, and what they want to solve the most is the economic difficulty.

Keywords:

• Anxiety
• COVID-19
• depression
• graduates
• insomnia
• practical difficulties
• suicide

Conclusion

The incidence of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and suicide among graduates has decreased since the epidemic was brought under control. Medical students are less worried about employment and insomnia than nonmedical students, and female students face more negative effects of employment than male students. College graduates are faced with a very real development problem, but the urgent problem to be solved is the economic problem.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of China and received approval from the School of Educational Science, Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund Emergency Management System Construction Research Special Project (20VYJ040) to Y.Z.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.