Psychological experience of university students during prolonged quarantine in China: a qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the psychological experiences of university students in prolonged quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive study based on semistructured interviews; data were analysed using a thematic topic analysis approach. SETTING: Interviews were conducted via WeChat video. PARTICIPANTS: 20 full-time undergraduate students from seven districts in Shanghai Province who experienced prolonged quarantine were interviewed from June to August 2022. RESULTS: The data analysis revealed three themes with corresponding subthemes related to the psychological experiences of university students during prolonged quarantine: (1) dynamic and complex psychological experiences, encompassing the feelings of relief, confusion, anxiety, insecurity, loneliness, craving for catharsis and emotional numbness; (2) desire for diverse support; and (3) self-reflection and growth, mainly including learning to be grateful, self-efficacy enhancement, reconsideration of the meaning of life and restructuring of future planning. CONCLUSION: This study explored the psychological experiences of university students in prolonged quarantine through qualitative interviews, which contributed to our understanding of their emotions, needs and conceptual changes during quarantine. Combined with the experiences of university students in quarantine, they reported complex emotional changes and diverse needs, as well as the impact of prolonged quarantine on their outlook on life. These findings can serve as a reference and basis for the development of future psychological intervention measures in line with national conditions.

The mediating effect of personality on mental workload and perceived professional benefits of nurses in East China.

BACKGROUND: Nursing work is a work with high-stress load, and nurses with different personality may have different subjective feelings about their workload. Therefore, it is particularly necessary to comprehend the perceived professional benefits of nurses engaged in nursing work under high-pressure background, especially during the epidemic period. This study explored the relationship between mental workload, personality, and perceived professional benefits of nurses, and offer advices for the intervention of nurses with different personality to improve their perceived professional benefits. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we used a cross-sectional study with a convenient sampling. 473 in-service nurses in Class A tertiary hospitals of Zhejiang Province were recruited by using the NASA Mission Load Index scale of nurses, the brief version of China's Big Five Personality Questionnaire, and the Nurses' perceived professional benefits questionnaire from July 2020 to March 2021. Sample size is 54.91%, and the response rate is 100%. Cronbach's alpha method was used to evaluate the reliability of the instruments. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to describe the socio-demographic data of the subject, and scores for research variables. The Mann-Whitney U-test, and Kruskal-Wallis H rank-sum test were used to compare the scores of perceived professional benefits with different demographic characteristics. Correlation analysis results were presented as the Spearman correlation coefficient. The plug-in v2.16.3 provided by SPSS software was used for linear regression analysis, and the deviation-corrected percentile Bootstrap method was used to examine the mediating role of personality (neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness and extroversion). RESULTS: Age, length of service in nursing, and record of formal schooling can affect nurses' perceived professional benefits. Mental workload, and perceived professional benefits were all above the median value. The mental workload was negatively correlated with perceived professional benefits (r= -0.129, P < 0.01), positively correlated with neuroticism (r = 0.242, P < 0.01), negatively correlated with agreeableness, openness, extroversion (r=-0.229~-0.221, P < 0.01), and negatively correlated with conscientiousness, but the differences were not significant. Nurses' perceived professional benefits were negatively correlated neuroticism (r=-0.109, P < 0.05), but positively associated with conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, and extroversion (r = 0.098 ~ 0.326, P < 0.05). The mental workload can directly affect the perceived professional benefits in the direct effects, and can also affect the it through the mediating effect of agreeableness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness. CONCLUSIONS: Age, length of service in nursing, and record of formal schooling could affect nurses' perceived professional benefits, and personality played a partial mediating role in the influence of mental workload on the perceived professional benefits. The results of this study can provide strategies for nurses' human resource management. According to different demographic factors, and personality, various measures should be taken to guide nurses to evaluate the mental workload correctly, reduce their emotional pressure, increase job resources, and improve their perceived professional benefits.

Daily stress, and mental health of professional degree graduate students in Chinese traditional medicine universities: the mediating role of learning career adaptation.

BACKGROUND: With the expansion of professional degree graduate students' enrollment in China education, the mental health of these professional degree graduate students in medical-related majors who are under pressure of study, scientific research, clinical practice, and employment should not be ignored. What is the mental health level of these graduate students under the effect of learning career adaptation (internal resources) in the face of daily stress (external factors)? The purpose of this study is to discuss the relationship between these variables, and the mediating role of learning career adaptation of professional degree graduate students in traditional Chinese medicine colleges, and universities, to provide a theoretical basis for improving the learning career adaptation of students, and improving the level of mental health. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1593 professional degree graduate students majoring in clinical medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and nursing in five traditional Chinese medicine universities. Finally, 660 questionnaires were returned, with a recovery rate of 41.43%. The scores of daily stress, learning career adaptation, and mental health were measured by Daily Stressors Scale for graduate students, graduate-students learning career adaptation scale, and General Mental Health Questionnaire (GHQ-20). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the status quo of daily stress, learning career adaptation, and mental health. Pearson correlation analysis were used to analyze the relationship between them. we undertake analyses using structural equation modeling to construct the latent variable path model of daily stress, learning career adaptation on mental health. The significance level of the mediating effect was tested by the non-parametric percentile bootstrap method. RESULTS: The scores of mental health, daily stress, and learning career adaptation were 50.56 ± 10.80, 35.12 ± 19.55, and 67.13 ± 7.48 respectively. Daily stress was negatively correlated with the three dimensions of learning career adaptation: career confidence, focus on his career, and career control (P < 0.01). Daily stress was positively correlated with depression and anxiety (P < 0.01). Self-affirmation, depression, and anxiety were negatively correlated with career confidence, focus on his career, and career control (P < 0.05). Learning career adaptation plays a partial mediating role between daily stress, and mental health (p < 0.001), with an intermediate effect value of 0.127, representing 28.54% of the total effect. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health, learning career adaption of medical-related professional degree graduate students in traditional Chinese medical universities were at a moderate degree, and an upper-middle level respectively, while daily stress is to a lesser extent. Learning career adaptation mediates the relationship between daily stress, and mental health partially. To some extent, it can buffer the impact of daily stress on mental health, especially anxiety. The educational administrator could take various measures to improve the mental health of professional degree graduate students. It can also enhance their learning career adaptation from the perspective of individuals, and organizations to improve their mental health.

Influencing factors of self-regulated learning of medical-related students in a traditional Chinese medical university: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, self-regulated learning (SRL) has become a hot topic in medical education. However, the factors that affect the SRL ability of medical-related specialties, such as clinical medicine, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and nursing specialty in TCM colleges and universities are unclear. Whether the teaching of learning strategies can help improve students' SRL also needs to be further examined. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was distributed, and 878 medical-related students who were from a TCM university were recruited for this study. Descriptive statistics illustrated the status quo of SRL and learning strategies, and an independent t-test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the factors associated with SRL. The relationship between SRL and learning strategies was analyzed with multi-linear regression analysis. RESULTS: The scores of SRL on learning motivation, learning setting, self-regulation, and total scores were 34.76 ± 4.62, 41.14 ± 4.30, 39.26 ± 4.74, and 115.16 ± 12.42, respectively. The metacognitive, emotion, cognitive, resource management and total scores of learning strategies were 58.54 ± 12.02, 43.24 ± 8.42, 35.49 ± 7.34, 22.89 ± 4.20, 160.16 ± 29.45, and the mean was all above the midpoint. Learning strategies were positively correlated with SRL (r = 0.421, P < 0.01). Some factors can predict 32% of the variation of SRL, including whether they liked their specialty, educational system, specialty, score ranking, scholarship, whether they were taught by a tutor in middle school, gender, monthly family income, the father's educational background, metacognitive strategy, resource management strategy, and cognitive strategy. CONCLUSIONS: The SRL of medical-related students was better. Learning strategies, as well as personal or social factors, can affect SRL. Educators should pay more attention to the cultivation of learning strategies, exercising learning skills, and monitoring, adjustment, and guidance of learning time. It should adopt various methods to improve the SRL of medical-related students according to the different factors.

Meta-analysis of the association between CHCHD10 Pro34Ser variant and the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), one of the motor neuron diseases, appears to be caused by genetic and environmental risk factors. However, the influence of Pro34Ser variant of CHCHD10 gene in increasing risk of ALS remains indeterminate. This study conducted a meta-analysis to establish the association between Pro34Ser variant of CHCHD10 gene and risk of ALS. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases were systematically searched for genome-wide association studies or case-control studies published up to March 28, 2020, on the association between Pro34Ser variant and risk of ALS. Data from eligible studies were extracted and analyzed. RESULTS: Twelve case-control studies involving 7442 patients with sporadic ALS and 75,371 controls were analyzed. The Pro34Ser variant was not associated with increased risk of ALS disease based on fixed-effects meta-analysis (Pro34Ser-positive vs Pro34Ser-negative: OR 1.23, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.69, P = 0.201). CONCLUSION: Existing evidence suggests that Pro34Ser variant in CHCHD10 is not associated with risk of ALS, particularly in Caucasian participants. However, our results ought to be validated using large, well-designed studies, especially in Asian and African populations.