A team of researchers undertook a study of the mental health of postgraduate students during the static management of the Covid-19 pandemic. They determined that when students received high levels of social support, it reduced stress, anxiety, and depression caused by static management.
Their research findings are published in the journal Stress and the brain on November 22, 2022.
Since the arrival of Covid-19 in December 2019, researchers have studied not only the impact of the pandemic on people’s physical health, but also its effects on people’s mental health. Studies have already been conducted focusing on the relationship between anxiety, depression and stress in children, university students, the elderly and the general population. However, scientists had not yet conducted studies focused on graduate students. Previous studies have shown that, in general, graduate students have poorer mental health compared to medical students and residents. So, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the research team looked at postgraduate students as an at-risk group that deserved their study.
With the arrival of the first omicron variant in Shanghai in May 2022, many universities in the city switched to static management, or closed campus management, for several months. The team focused its study on postgraduate students at these universities affected by static management. Previous research showed that due to static management, most people had moderate to high levels of stress. The team conducted an online survey to assess the level of social support, stress, anxiety and depression that postgraduate students at several Shanghai universities experienced during the period of static pandemic management. The 110 students in the study completed a series of online questionnaires about current life stress and social support, a generalized anxiety disorder survey, and a general student health survey.
The researchers noted that changes in daily routines, such as changes in sleep, physical activity and diet, caused by static management, can lead to chronic stress. These factors contributed to a poor long-term quality of life for students. Chronic stress has been shown to be closely related to illnesses such as burnout and depression. “Life stress in the background of the COVID-19 pandemic would lead to obvious symptoms of anxiety and depression,” said Ti-Fei Yuan, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.
The team’s results showed that the interaction between life stress and social support had a strong predictive effect on anxiety level. A high level of social support may moderate the impact of life stress on anxiety levels.
The team also investigated the impact of students’ social support on the relationship between life stress and depression. Their results showed that life stress and social support can combine to predict the level of depression. A high level of social support may moderate the association between life stress and depression. They noted that students with a higher level of social support had milder symptoms of anxiety and depression. These findings reveal the protective function of social support on a person’s mental health.
From a practical point of view, the team recognizes that graduate students would benefit from enhanced social support. Universities can provide services that improve social support for graduate students. “Universities should encourage more social activities to enable more available social support, which would help mitigate the risk of anxiety and depression during the period of static campus management,” Yuan said.
These results can help us better understand the relationship between graduate students’ life stress, level of social support, level of anxiety and level of depression during the epidemic.”
Yuanyuan Yin from Wenzhou Medical University School Psychiatry
Looking ahead to future research, the team hopes to conduct interviews to gain deeper insight into the students’ current living situation, as well as their feelings and thoughts.
The research team includes Yuanyuan Yin from the Wenzhou Medical University School of Psychiatry and Xinyu Cheng, Ziqi Liu and Ti-Fei Yuan from the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and Jianyin Qiu. , Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.
Source:
Journal reference:
Yin, Y., et al. (2022) High-level social support moderates the negative effect of life stress on graduate students’ mental health during closed campus management of the COVID-19 pandemic Omicron. Stress and the brain. doi.org/10.26599/SAB.2022.9060022.
