University students under lockdown, the psychosocial effects and coping strategies during COVID-19 pandemic: A cross sectional study in Egypt

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess the psychosocial effects and coping strategies of university students during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Between 30 May and 6 June 2020, an online cross-sectional survey was fulfilled by 612 university students. The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale, version 3, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), and the Brief COPE scale were used. Results: Different degrees of depression, anxiety, and stress were reported by 74.5%, 47.1%, and 40.5% of the surveyed students, respectively. Dysfunctional coping strategies including venting, denial, and substance use had the lowest scores on Brief COPE while problem-focused coping strategies including planning and active coping strategies had the highest scores on Brief COPE. Conclusion: Undergraduate university students are very prone to experience psychosocial problems during the current pandemic. Educational institutions should work together with the authorities to promote measures to improve mental health and academic performance of their students.

Keywords:

• Anxiety
• coping
• COVID-19
• depression
• psychosocial effects
• stress

Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to the study participants for sparing their valuable time to fill-out the questionnaires.

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 Egypt and received approval from the Research Ethics Committee of Faculty of Nursing - Mansoura University (Ref. No. P.0201).

Funding

The authors did not receive any funding for this study.