Subjective mental well-being among higher education students in Finland during the first wave of COVID-19.
Scand J Public Health
; 50(6): 765-771, 2022 Aug.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35191341
AIMS: Increased mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic have become a major concern among young adults. Our aim was to understand which COVID-19-related questions predicted mental well-being during the outbreak. METHODS: Two cross-sectional datasets were used. The primary dataset was collected in May 2020 (n = 1001), during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, and the secondary in April 2019 (n = 10866), before the pandemic. Mental well-being was assessed with the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale. Relationships between mental well-being and COVID-19-related questions were investigated with lasso regression. As an exploratory analysis, two-way ANOVAs were used to compare mental well-being before and during the outbreak. RESULTS: Higher levels of mental well-being were associated with lower levels of academic stress and COVID-19-related worry, along with a higher satisfaction with the procedures and information provided by the higher education institutions and the government. COVID-19-related symptoms and infections did not have an impact on students' mental well-being during the outbreak. Small to moderate effect sizes across the time points were detected, indicating an overall decrease in mental well-being across age and gender during the outbreak. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 had an impact on higher education students' mental well-being. Higher education institutes may play a crucial role in protecting their students' well-being during uncertain times.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
Scand J Public Health
Journal subject:
MEDICINA SOCIAL
/
SAUDE PUBLICA
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Finland
Country of publication:
Sweden