Relationship between Fear of COVID-19, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Coping Strategies on University Students' Mental Health.

BACKGROUND: the mental health of students was particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study therefore examined the relationships between anxiety and depressive symptoms, eating-related problems, coping, fear of COVID-19, and intolerance of uncertainty. METHODS: 2139 French students of 54 universities were recruited in the different regions of France during a French lockdown (between 21 April and 3 May 2021). Six variables were measured: fear of COVID-19, intolerance of uncertainty, coping, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and eating-related problems. To explore the directions of the relationships between our variables of interest, we calculated a directed acyclic graph. RESULTS: our data highlighted the central roles of intolerance of uncertainty in students' anxiety and depressive symptoms, and the direct role of prospective intolerance of uncertainty on eating-related problems. CONCLUSIONS: these findings indicate that intolerance of uncertainty should be targeted by interventions designed to help students with high levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and/or eating-related problems.

The Effect of Intervention Approaches of Emotion Regulation and Learning Strategies on Students' Learning and Mental Health.

University students are a vulnerable population, and many recent studies show that anxiety, depressive symptoms, and academic burnout have been on the increase since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings point to a need for interventions to reduce these difficulties. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of 2 formats of an innovative program on students' mental health (anxiety, depressive symptoms, and academic burnout), intolerance of uncertainty, learned helplessness, and learning. Our sample was composed of 105 university students, recruited on a voluntary basis. They were divided into 3 groups: online intervention group (n = 36), face-to-face intervention group (n = 32), and control group (n = 37). The following variables were measured through online questionnaires: anxiety and depressive symptoms, academic burnout, intolerance of uncertainty, learned helplessness, perceived social support, learning strategies, and beliefs. There were 2 assessments 10 weeks apart (ie, before and after the program in the case of the 2 intervention groups). We performed nonparametric analyses to run comparisons between the 2 assessment timepoints in each group. Results showed that participants in the 2 intervention groups had lower levels of learned helplessness and intolerance of uncertainty at the end of the program. Furthermore, participants in the face-to-face group reported higher levels of perceived social support, academic self-efficacy, and help-seeking strategies. The present study highlighted the benefits of our innovative program, especially its face-to-face format.Clinical Trial - ID: NCT04978194.

Two Years and Four Time Points: Description of Emotional State and Coping Strategies of French University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

While it is now clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the mental health of individuals, especially the most vulnerable ones such as students, we have very little knowledge about the long-term consequences. The objective of this study was to compare the mental health and coping of French university students during the different phases of the pandemic in the first 2 years. To this end, French university students were evaluated at four time points: during France's first lockdown (April-May 2020; nT1 = 1357), the period after lockdown (June 2020; nT2 = 309), 1 year after the first lockdown, which was also a lockdown period (April-May 2021; nT1' = 2569); and 1 year after the end of the first unlock (June 2021; nT2' = 1136). Anxiety and depressive symptoms, coping and concerns were measured. In order to compare scores between the lockdown and unlock periods within the same year, paired samples t-tests were performed. To compare scores between the 2 years for different participants, independent samples t-tests were conducted. Our results showed that maladaptive strategies, concerns and symptoms were higher during lockdown periods, compared with unlock periods. In addition, symptom levels were higher in the second year of the pandemic compared with the first one. These argue that the psychological effects of COVID-19 were exacerbated by lockdowns but also by time. This highlights the need for more attention to be paid to students' mental health.