Psychological responses and strategies towards the COVID-19 pandemic among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland: a mixed-methods study

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Schwander-Maire, Françoise
Data de Publicação: 2022
Outros Autores: Querido, Ana, Cara-Nova, Tanya, Dixe, Maria Anjos, Aissaoui, Djamel, Charepe, Zaida, Christie, Derek, Laranjeira, Carlos
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/37883
Resumo: Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused overwhelming changes in individual and community daily-life, resulting from the public health measures implemented to contain it, and also from its psychological and socio-economic consequences. These shifts and consequences impacted the entire population, but some groups are more likely to be affected by these changes, including higher education students. Objectives: a) to investigate mental health status and its determinants among higher-education students in Portugal and Switzerland; and b) to explore adjustment patterns used by these students to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study with a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was conducted in two phases. First, an online survey was conducted among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland, in Portuguese and French respectively. A convenience sampling method was used. Second, some participants from the first phase were invited to participate in four online focus group discussions (two in each country) using a maximum variation sampling method. Results: The survey was answered by 1,880 students. Portuguese students revealed higher levels of stress and anxiety, but lower depression symptoms and less resilient coping compared to Swiss respondents. Hope was identified as an explanatory variable for mental health symptoms in students from both countries. In the focus groups (n = 27), 13 adjustment strategies were found, which were subdivided into three spheres: personal, social, and contextual. Conclusions: The results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic had a mild to moderate impact on most of the evaluated mental health variables. Nevertheless, the students reacted and mobilized positive short-term strategies, which need to be reinforced in order to prevent long-term psychological harm. In addition, our results can inform psychosocial interventions to minimize psychological impact, anxiety, depression, and stress due to sanitary crises or other population-wide problems or disasters.
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spelling Psychological responses and strategies towards the COVID-19 pandemic among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland: a mixed-methods studyPortugalSwitzerlandCOVID-19Psychological impactHigher educationCoping strategiesMixed-methods studyStudentsBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused overwhelming changes in individual and community daily-life, resulting from the public health measures implemented to contain it, and also from its psychological and socio-economic consequences. These shifts and consequences impacted the entire population, but some groups are more likely to be affected by these changes, including higher education students. Objectives: a) to investigate mental health status and its determinants among higher-education students in Portugal and Switzerland; and b) to explore adjustment patterns used by these students to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study with a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was conducted in two phases. First, an online survey was conducted among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland, in Portuguese and French respectively. A convenience sampling method was used. Second, some participants from the first phase were invited to participate in four online focus group discussions (two in each country) using a maximum variation sampling method. Results: The survey was answered by 1,880 students. Portuguese students revealed higher levels of stress and anxiety, but lower depression symptoms and less resilient coping compared to Swiss respondents. Hope was identified as an explanatory variable for mental health symptoms in students from both countries. In the focus groups (n = 27), 13 adjustment strategies were found, which were subdivided into three spheres: personal, social, and contextual. Conclusions: The results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic had a mild to moderate impact on most of the evaluated mental health variables. Nevertheless, the students reacted and mobilized positive short-term strategies, which need to be reinforced in order to prevent long-term psychological harm. In addition, our results can inform psychosocial interventions to minimize psychological impact, anxiety, depression, and stress due to sanitary crises or other population-wide problems or disasters.Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica PortuguesaSchwander-Maire, FrançoiseQuerido, AnaCara-Nova, TanyaDixe, Maria AnjosAissaoui, DjamelCharepe, ZaidaChristie, DerekLaranjeira, Carlos2022-06-15T13:17:01Z2022-05-112022-05-11T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/37883eng1664-064010.3389/fpsyt.2022.90394685130680010PMC913222435633785000804002400001info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2024-01-16T01:44:03Zoai:repositorio.ucp.pt:10400.14/37883Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T18:30:52.076060Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Psychological responses and strategies towards the COVID-19 pandemic among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland: a mixed-methods study
title Psychological responses and strategies towards the COVID-19 pandemic among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland: a mixed-methods study
spellingShingle Psychological responses and strategies towards the COVID-19 pandemic among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland: a mixed-methods study
Schwander-Maire, Françoise
Portugal
Switzerland
COVID-19
Psychological impact
Higher education
Coping strategies
Mixed-methods study
Students
title_short Psychological responses and strategies towards the COVID-19 pandemic among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland: a mixed-methods study
title_full Psychological responses and strategies towards the COVID-19 pandemic among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland: a mixed-methods study
title_fullStr Psychological responses and strategies towards the COVID-19 pandemic among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland: a mixed-methods study
title_full_unstemmed Psychological responses and strategies towards the COVID-19 pandemic among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland: a mixed-methods study
title_sort Psychological responses and strategies towards the COVID-19 pandemic among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland: a mixed-methods study
author Schwander-Maire, Françoise
author_facet Schwander-Maire, Françoise
Querido, Ana
Cara-Nova, Tanya
Dixe, Maria Anjos
Aissaoui, Djamel
Charepe, Zaida
Christie, Derek
Laranjeira, Carlos
author_role author
author2 Querido, Ana
Cara-Nova, Tanya
Dixe, Maria Anjos
Aissaoui, Djamel
Charepe, Zaida
Christie, Derek
Laranjeira, Carlos
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Schwander-Maire, Françoise
Querido, Ana
Cara-Nova, Tanya
Dixe, Maria Anjos
Aissaoui, Djamel
Charepe, Zaida
Christie, Derek
Laranjeira, Carlos
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv Portugal
Switzerland
COVID-19
Psychological impact
Higher education
Coping strategies
Mixed-methods study
Students
topic Portugal
Switzerland
COVID-19
Psychological impact
Higher education
Coping strategies
Mixed-methods study
Students
description Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused overwhelming changes in individual and community daily-life, resulting from the public health measures implemented to contain it, and also from its psychological and socio-economic consequences. These shifts and consequences impacted the entire population, but some groups are more likely to be affected by these changes, including higher education students. Objectives: a) to investigate mental health status and its determinants among higher-education students in Portugal and Switzerland; and b) to explore adjustment patterns used by these students to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study with a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was conducted in two phases. First, an online survey was conducted among higher education students in Portugal and Switzerland, in Portuguese and French respectively. A convenience sampling method was used. Second, some participants from the first phase were invited to participate in four online focus group discussions (two in each country) using a maximum variation sampling method. Results: The survey was answered by 1,880 students. Portuguese students revealed higher levels of stress and anxiety, but lower depression symptoms and less resilient coping compared to Swiss respondents. Hope was identified as an explanatory variable for mental health symptoms in students from both countries. In the focus groups (n = 27), 13 adjustment strategies were found, which were subdivided into three spheres: personal, social, and contextual. Conclusions: The results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic had a mild to moderate impact on most of the evaluated mental health variables. Nevertheless, the students reacted and mobilized positive short-term strategies, which need to be reinforced in order to prevent long-term psychological harm. In addition, our results can inform psychosocial interventions to minimize psychological impact, anxiety, depression, and stress due to sanitary crises or other population-wide problems or disasters.
publishDate 2022
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2022-06-15T13:17:01Z
2022-05-11
2022-05-11T00:00:00Z
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/37883
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dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv 1664-0640
10.3389/fpsyt.2022.903946
85130680010
PMC9132224
35633785
000804002400001
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dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
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reponame_str Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
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repository.name.fl_str_mv Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação
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