Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug:290:113108.
doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113108. Epub 2020 May 19.

Psychological effects of the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown among students and workers of a Spanish university

Paula Odriozola-González  1 , Álvaro Planchuelo-Gómez  2 , María Jesús Irurtia  3 , Rodrigo de Luis-García  2
Affiliations

Psychological effects of the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown among students and workers of a Spanish university

Paula Odriozola-González et al. Psychiatry Res. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychological impact of COVID-19 in the university community during the first weeks of confinement. A cross-sectional study was conducted. The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) was employed to assess symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. The emotional impact of the situation was analyzed using the Impact of Event Scale. An online survey was fulfilled by 2530 members of the University of Valladolid, in Spain. Moderate to extremely severe scores of anxiety, depression, and stress were reported by 21.34%, 34.19% and 28.14% of the respondents, respectively. A total of 50.43% of respondents presented moderate to severe impact of the outbreak. Students from Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences & Law showed higher scores related to anxiety, depression, stress and impact of event with respect to students from Engineering & Architecture. University staff presented lower scores in all measures compared to students, who seem to have suffered an important psychological impact during the first weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown. In order to provide timely crisis-oriented psychological services and to take preventive measures in future pandemic situations, mental health in university students should be carefully monitored.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Psychological impact; Stress; University students.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig 1
Fig. 1
Radar plot with the distribution of IES and DASS-21 mean scores in students and academic and faculty staff by field of study.
Fig 2
Fig. 2
Proportion of students organized by area of study that fall within each of the groups that are commonly considered for the DASS-21 depression subscale.
Fig 3
Fig. 3
Proportion of students organized by area of study that fall within each of the groups that are commonly considered for the DASS-21 anxiety subscale.
Fig 4
Fig. 4
Proportion of students organized by area of study that fall within each of the groups that are commonly considered for the DASS-21 stress subscale.
Fig 5
Fig. 5
Proportion of students organized by area of study that fall within each of the groups that are considered for the IES.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Antony M.M., Bieling P.J., Cox B.J., Enns M.W., Swinson R.P. Psychometric properties of the 42-item and 21-item versions of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) in clinical groups and a community sample. Psychol. Assess. 1998;10:176–181. doi: 10.1037/1040-3590.10.2.176. - DOI
    1. Araújo F.J.O., de Lima L.S.A., Cidade P.I.M., Nobre C.B., Neto M.L.R. Impact of Sars-Cov-2 and its reverberation in global higher education and mental health. Psychiatry Res. 2020;288 doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112977. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Auerbach R.P., Alonso J., Axinn W.G., Cuijpers P., Ebert D.D., Green J.G., Hwang I., Kessler R.C., Liu H., Mortier P., Nock M.K., Pinder-Amaker S., Sampson N.A., Aguilar-Gaxiola S., Al-Hamzawi A., Andrade L.H., Benjet C., Caldas-de-Almeida J.M., Demyttenaere K., Florescu S., de Girolamo G., Gureje O., Haro J.M., Karam E.G., Kiejna A., Kovess-Masfety V., Lee S., McGrath J.J., O'Neill S., Pennell B.-E., Scott K., Ten Have M., Torres Y., Zaslavsky A.M., Zarkov Z., Bruffaerts R. Mental disorders among college students in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Psychol. Med. 2016;46:2955–2970. doi: 10.1017/S0033291716001665. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baguena M.J., Villaroya E., Belena A., Díaz A., Roldán C., Reig R. Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) Análisis y Modif. Conduct. 2001;27:581–604.
    1. Bao Y., Sun Y., Meng S., Shi J., Lu L. 2019-nCoV epidemic: address mental health care to empower society. Lancet. 2020;395:e37–e38. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30309-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms