Do academic challenges pose a threat to university students' mental health? A parallel mediation through healthy & unhealthy coping

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the Health Theory of Coping (Stallman, 2020) through an examination of the mediating role of healthy and unhealthy coping in the prediction of mental health from pandemic-related academic challenges. A total of 1317 (77% female) university students completed three questionnaires online. Hayes' Model 4 of parallel mediation was employed to analyze the mediation of healthy and unhealthy coping between academic challenges and mental health in the second quarter of 2020. Findings suggested that students experienced academic challenges in the sudden shift to online classes in the early months of COVID-19 pandemic. These challenges were associated with poor mental health, less use of healthy coping strategies, and an increased use of unhealthy coping strategies. Results also showed that both healthy and unhealthy coping partially mediated academic challenges and mental health. This implies that the challenges of adapting to the demands of online classes lessened the participants' ability to use healthy ways of coping, (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)