Mental health status and its influencing factors of college students in Anhui Province during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

ABSTRACT

[Background] As a public health emergency, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought a certain impact on the public. [Objective] This study explores the mental health status of college students in Anhui Province during the COVID-19 pandemic and analyzes possible influencing factors. [Methods] On February 2020, 493 college students from two universities in Anhui Province completed the Self-Esteem Scale (SES), the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), and the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90). Independent samples t test and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the differences of college students' mental health scores by different sociodemographic characteristics. Independent samples t test was also used to analyze the differences in mental health status between the participants and the norms. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the relationships between mental health, self-esteem, and perceived social support. With the total score of SCL-90 as dependent variable and the scores of SES and PSSS as independent variables, a multiple linear stepwise regression analysis was established to explore the potential influencing factors of college students' mental health during the pandemic. [Results] Finally 472 (95.74%) valid questionnaires were returned. Of them 90 (19.07%) respondents were positive at the SCL-90 scale;the highest three dimensional positive rates were anxiety (34.75%), interpersonal sensitivity (24.36%), and obsessive-compulsive (23.73%), and the lowest rate was psychiatric disorders (13.77%). The overall SCL-90 score was 139.13±31.59, and the score of the college students who were the only child was lower than that of the college students who were not the only child (t=-2.098, P < 0.05). Compared with the norms, the total score of SCL-90 and the dimensional scores of interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, and psychiatric disorders of the participants were higher (P < 0.05). The students' self-esteem score was 25.35±4.92 and perceived social support score was 60.28±12.98. The total SCL-90 score was negatively correlated with the self-esteem score (r=-0.506, P < 0.01) and the perceived social support score (r=-0.482, P < 0.01). The multiple linear stepwise regression analysis results showed that self-esteem (b=-2.590, P < 0.001) and perceived social support (b=-0.903, P < 0.001) jointly explained 38.3% of the changes in total SCL-90 score. [Conclusion] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall mental health status of the college students is not good. Reasonable levels of self-esteem and perceived social support are helpful to improve their mental health.