COVID-Related Functional Difficulties and Concerns Among University Students During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Binational Pers
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ORIGINAL PAPER
COVID‑Related Functional Difficulties and Concerns Among University Students During COVID‑19 Pandemic: A Binational Perspective Miriam Schiff1 · Larysa Zasiekina2 · Ruth Pat‑Horenczyk1 · Rami Benbenishty1,3 Accepted: 28 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has created a sense of threat, and stress that has surged globally at an alarming pace. University students were confronted with new challenges. This study examined university students’ functional difficulties and concerns during COVID-19 pandemic in two countries: Israel and Ukraine. Additionally, it examined the similarities and differences in prediction of COVID-related concerns in both countries. Two large samples of university students were drawn from both countries. Results showed that students’ main functional difficulties in both countries were: worries about their family health status and their learning assignments. In both countries, COVID-related functional difficulties and stress associated with exposure to the media added a significant amount of the explained variance of COVID-related concerns after controlling for background variables. In conclusion—while the level of exposure and difficulties may differ by country and context, their associations with students’ concerns seem robust. Additionally, repeated exposure to media coverage about a community threat can lead to increased anxiety. Keywords COVID-19 · University students · Functional difficulties · COVID-related concerns · Media exposure · Comparative studies
Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has created a sense of threat, uncertainty, and stress that has surged globally at an alarming pace. It has invaded many domains of daily life and abruptly changed the routine behaviors of individuals and communities. The most frequent word to be associated with the COVID-19 outbreak in both professional literature and media coverage is “unprecedented” (appearing as of June 10 in more than 2.5 million results in a Google search), highlighting the lack of existing scripts for coping with the new reality.
* Miriam Schiff [email protected] 1
Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Trauma and Resilience Research Group, Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel
2
Department of Psychology and Pedagogy, Lesya Ukrainka Eastern European National University, Lutsk 35800, Volyn Oblast, Ukraine
3
Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile
A few weeks into the COVID-19 crisis, a growing number of publications had already appeared on the adverse mental health effect, mostly in terms of depression and anxiety. Płomecka et al. [1] documented the prevalence of psychological symptoms related to the COVID-19 pandemic among more than 13,000 individuals from 12 countries and five WHO regions worldwide (from March 29 to April 14, 2020). The study identified as notable risk factors: having female gender, a pre-existing psychiatric condition, or prior exposure to trauma, whe
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