The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological well-being of college students: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: Even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns regarding college students' mental health were on the rise due to the increasing number of students afflicted with mental health issues. Exposure to numerous pandemic-related measures exacerbated existing issues with anxiety, depression, and stress. This study aimed to assess depression, anxiety, and stress levels among university students in the Aseer region in Saudi Arabia. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Data were collected from eligible individuals using a web-based, self-administered DASS-21 questionnaire. This questionnaire consists of 21 questions with a rating scale of 0-3. Each of the psychological factors of depression, anxiety, and stress was categorized as normal, mild, moderate, severe, and extremely severe. Results were expressed using descriptive statistics as proportions, and the Mann-Whitney/Kruskal-Wallis' test was used to evaluate the presence of a significant difference between each of the socio-demographic factors of the respondents and the psychological outcomes. RESULTS: Respondents aged between 18-24 years reported higher rates of extremely severe depression than other age groups. Females had higher rates of depression, especially severe and extremely severe forms. Extremely severe anxiety had a relatively high prevalence across all age groups. Extremely severe stress was more common among respondents aged between 18-24 years, while respondents older than 34 years reported the highest prevalence of severe stress. The Mann-Whitney/Kruskal-Wallis' tests showed statistically significant differences between participants in the different groups. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic had a high psychological impact on university students, which indicates that a psychological support program should be implemented to reduce this impact.

Impact of COVID-19 on Academic and Psychological aspects of Undergraduate Students in Bangladesh: A Case Study

Undergraduate students are considered susceptible in terms of anxiety, drug abuse, depression, and bad dietary habits in comparison to the general people. Their academic and psychological facets have severely been altered due to COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this study is to identify the effect of COVID-19 on the academic and psychological aspects of undergraduate students in Bangladesh accompanied by other pertinent factors. Data were accumulated from the undergraduate students of the Fall semester 2020-21 of American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) by questionnaire provided through Microsoft Forms. The associations among the variables were assessed through the chi-square test. All the statistical analyses required to meet the goals of the study were done through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Nearly one-fourth of the students suffered from anxiety and depression at an extreme level while close to one-third of them suffered quite a bit signaling a tormenting psychological state of the students. Chi-square tests found that depression, anxiety, study hour, assessment of online learning, and income issue due to COVID-19 of the student had a highly significant association with effects on their study and psychological aspects. Failure to address the aforesaid issues during an epidemic might have negative consequences on the academic and psychological aspects in the long run. ©AJSE 2021.

Does Pandemics Effects Human Future? Decisive Role of COVID-19 in Human Evolution

The depth and scale of the COVID-19 pandemic create the greatest global crisis of this century. This catastrophe leads to one of the large-scale economic and social disrupts in the history of mankind. Despite magnificent scientific progress and technological advancement, nature upholds humans as a statue against the situation. This crisis not only changed the economical and social courses but strongly shaken the strings of cultural and religious believes and harmony. From a strong economy to the highest moral values and unique religious believes did not help to fight the situation. The post-pandemic era will be an opportunity to think about the existing economical, social, and cultural faiths. It will also provoke an evaluation of the difference between “how we did” and “how we should do” as well as to focus on international cooperation to develop a combined strategy against such subsequent challenges. Such brainstorming process will result in enormous change in policies from the governments and re-shuffling of the beliefs including moral values in the society. This review portrays the most challenging situations faced during a pandemic and encompasses the discussion on lessons learned and predictive points about the future human being and architecture of the economical and social structures. This will provide a sketch of how present decisions will describe the world of future human beings. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.