ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Prevalence and Predictors of Perceived Stress on College Students During the COVID-19 Outbreak

  • CHEN Jiangyuan ,
  • WU Ran
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  • 1Shanghai Pudong High School, Shanghai 200125, China;
    2Professor Li Chunbo’s Studio for Mental Health Education of Shanghai Schools, Shanghai 200030, China;
    3Counseling and Psychological services of East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
*WU Ran, ranwly@163.com

Online published: 2024-10-16

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the prevalence and examine the predictors of perceived stress in Chinese college students during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Methods: During the COVID-19 outbreak in February 2020, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and a self-designed associated factors questionnaire were distributed to college students in China over the internet.
Results: In the end, 1465 valid questionnaires, that were completed by students from provinces, cities and autonomous regions across the country except Macau and Taiwan, were collected, among which 70.6% were female students and 29.4% were male, with the mean age of 19.3 (1.3) years. The findings showed that 78.2% of the participants exceeded the normative community score of 12 on the PSS-10 scale; and 23.2% exceeded the cut-point of 5 on the GAD-7 scale. Female students had a significantly higher GAD-7 mean score than males, and no gender difference was found in PSS-10. Low physical activity level, poor knowledge of COVD-19, low perception of curability, and high perception transmission risk are risk factors of perceived stress in college students; poor physical health, long duration of paying attention to COVID-19 information, low perception of curability, and high perception of transmission risk are risk factors of anxiety.
Conclusions: In the COVID-19 outbreak, the stress level of college students should be monitored and concerned. Promoting physical activity and enhancing knowledge of the outbreak might be effective ways to reduce perceived stress among college students.

Cite this article

CHEN Jiangyuan , WU Ran . Prevalence and Predictors of Perceived Stress on College Students During the COVID-19 Outbreak[J]. Psychological Communications, 2021 , 4(1) : 31 -37 . DOI: 10.12100/j.issn.2096-5494.220077

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