Academic stress and emotional exhaustion in university students in the context of virtual education

One of the main repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic in the educational field was the migration from face-to-face to virtual modality, which forced students to adapt to this new scenario. Currently, universities are beginning to gradually return to face-to-face or blended education, however, many of them still continue to provide the educational service virtually, which has favorable aspects, as well as some limitations. In this sense, the present investigation aimed to determine the relationship between academic stress and emotional exhaustion in students of the branch of a Peruvian private university in the context of virtual education. The approach was quantitative, the design was non-experimental and the type was descriptive-correlational with a transectional cut. The sample consisted of 273 students to whom the SISCO Inventory of Academic Stress and the Emotional Tiredness Scale were applied, instruments with adequate psychometric properties (validity based on content and reliability). The results indicate that 31.1% of the students had moderate levels of academic stress, 34.4% had moderate levels of emotional exhaustion and it was determined that Spearman's rho correlation coefficient between both variables was 0.731 with a p-value lower than the level of significance (p<0.01). It was concluded that there is a direct and significant relationship between academic stress and emotional exhaustion, which is why it is necessary for the university institution to design and execute preventive and corrective programs that allow students to reduce the prevalence of the problems addressed and improve their levels of psychological well-being, as well as their quality of life. Copyright © 2022, Venezuelan Society of Pharmacology and Clinical and Therapeutic Pharmacology. All rights reserved.

Assessment of stress-related psychosomatic symptoms in regular basic education teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were great changes in basic education, one of them being the migration of the teaching process to virtuality, which caused a lot of uncertainty and effort for teachers, since many of them were not prepared nor did they have the digital and didactic skills to provide education under this modality. By virtue of the foregoing, the present research aimed to assess the psychosomatic symptoms related to stress in Peruvian teachers of regular basic education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research approach was quantitative, the design was not experimental, and the type was descriptive-transectional. The sample was made up of 292 teachers to whom the Psychosomatic Problems Questionnaire was applied, an instrument with adequate levels of reliability and validity. According to the findings, teachers were characterized by presenting a moderate level of assessment of psychosomatic symptoms related to stress, the main ones being feelings of extreme exhaustion, the desire not to want to get up in the morning, and some nervousness tics or blinking and headaches. Finally, it was found that the assessment of stress-related symptoms was significantly associated with gender, age group, and teachers' employment status. It was concluded that the decentralized bod-ies of the Ministry of Education must identify and provide continuous socio-emotional support to teachers who require it to promote their emotional well-being and quality of life, thus reducing the prevalence of psychosomatic symptoms associated with stress and improving the condition. work in which they develop. Copyright © 2022, Venezuelan Society of Pharmacology and Clinical and Therapeutic Pharmacology. All rights reserved.

Burnout syndrome in teachers in times of the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries implemented social distancing measures as a strategy to reduce the rate of contagion. In the educational field, it highlights the migration from face-to-face classes to virtual classes, which brings with its difficulties and challenges for teachers, as well as a series of requirements, thus increasing the possibility of suffering from the Burnout Syndrome. Therefore, the objective of this research was to analyze the Burnout Syndrome in Peruvian teachers of regular basic education in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research approach was quantitative, non-ex-perimental design and the type of descriptive transectional design. The sample consisted of 209 teachers to whom the Maslach Burnout Inventory was applied, an instrument with adequate levels of reliability and validity. According to the re-sults, the teachers were characterized by presenting a high level of burnout syndrome and emotional exhaustion and a moderate level of depersonalization and professional fulfill-ment. Likewise, it was found that some sociodemographic variables such as sex, age, and employment status are significantly associated with burnout syndrome. Finally, it was concluded that the decentralized instances of the Ministry of Education must identify and provide continuous socio-emotional support to teachers who require it to promote their well-being and improve the working conditions in which they operate. Likewise, educational institutions must develop intervention programs with the presence of psychologists to reduce the prevalence of burnout syndrome and the affectation that it could cause. Copyright © 2022, Venezuelan Society of Pharmacology and Clinical and Therapeutic Pharmacology. All rights reserved.

Concern about COVID-19 infection in Peruvian teachers when returning to face-to-face education

Objective: To analyze the concern about COVID-19 infection in Peruvian teachers of regular basic education when returning to face-to-face education. Materials and methods: The research approach was quan-titative;the design was non-experimental and the descriptive type transectional. The sample was made up of 225 teachers from the initial, primary, and secondary education levels to whom the COVID-19 Infection Concern Scale was applied, an instrument with adequate levels of validity and reliability. Subsequently, the responses were systematized and analyzed using SPSS® version 25 software. Results: It was identified that 39.6% of the teachers presented moderate levels of concern about COVID-19 infec-tion, 34.7% had low levels and 25.7% showed high levels. Among the main concerns, they highlighted considering that in educational institutions there were some risks, such as the presence of students and parents who do not use masks cor-rectly and do not wash their hands properly, which generated concern and fear of infecting them. COVID-19 after leaving work to their relatives or people with whom they lived. Like-wise, it was determined that some sociodemographic and medical variables were significantly associated (p<0.05) with said concern. Conclusions: It was determined that teachers characterized themselves as presenting moderate levels of concern about COVID-19 infection and it was established that female teachers, who were over 40 years old, who were not vac-cinated, who had comorbidities and had previously been infected with COVID-19 had slightly higher levels than the other contrast groups.

Internet addiction in students at a Peruvian private university during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and the accelerated spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have caused governments to decree mandatory social isolation in many countries, causing people to change their habits, among which the time spent on the Internet stands out. Although the Internet has provided valuable opportunities in scientific, communicative, and social aspects of society, it’s inappropriate and extreme use, mostly for recreational purposes, is a serious threat to the health and well-being of the population, especially children. youths. Therefore, this research aimed to analyze internet addiction (IA) in undergraduate students at a private Peruvian university during the COVID-19 pandemic. The approach was quan titative, the design was non-experimental, and the type was descriptive of transectional cut. The sample consisted of 265 students and the instrument used for data collection was the Lima Internet Addiction Scale, which had adequate validity and reliability. The results indicate that 43.4% of the students presented moderate levels of IA, characterized mainly by the fact that they spent more time on the Internet than they intended, after having disconnected they felt that they wanted to continue connected to the Internet and they came to have problems in the university for such conduct. It was concluded that the predominant level of IA in students was moderate and that some sociodemographic and academic variables such as gender, age group, connection time, as well as previous academic performance were significantly associated with the said disorder (p<0.05).

Computer vision syndrome: an emerging problem during the COVID-19 health emergency

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the virtualization of the activities that people carried out in person to comply with the mandatory social isolation provisions and prevent infection rates from increasing. Therefore, it was necessary for them to be connected for many hours to digital devices such as computers, laptops, tablets and cell phones, mainly, which could have caused computer vision syndrome, a condition that impacts the normal development of academic activities, labor, social, etc. In this sense, we consider that although during the pandemic it could have been evidenced more frequently, it would have a prevalence that would continue to be significant in the current post-pandemic context.