Psychological Impacts and Behavioural Effects of the COVID-19 Epidemic on College Students in China

Abstract

The epidemic of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly spread from Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China at the end of 2019 and swept across the world. The effects of COVID-19 on the negative emotions and mental health of human beings, accompanied by different attitudes arising from culture differences or certain prejudices, seem to be more threatening than the disease itself. The epidemic not only threatens human life and afflicts them with illness, but also brings psychological stress and panic-like behaviours implicated with its high infectivity. By using purpose-made questionnaires, a total of 3965 college students from six universities in Shanghai City, Anhui Province and Guangxi Province in China were randomly selected for on-line testing. The content of the questionnaire included: demographic data, overall cognition of the COVID-19 epidemic, and psychological impacts and behavioural effects of the epidemic on college students. The survey results show that students’ overall cognition level of the epidemic reaches 95.7% and psychological impacts and behavioural effects of the epidemic on college students are significant. Moreover, 56.3% of college students are in a state of panic and nearly 60% of them experience significant changes in their daily behaviour. College students with different personalities and psychological mindsets from different regions exhibit significant differences in psychological and behavioural performances (P < 0.01). Therefore, in such a public health emergency, more attention should be paid to the mental health status of college students, especially those who are introverted and emotionally unstable and have poor psychological health arising from attachment to areas severely hit by the epidemic.