Antecedentes: la implementación de medidas de salud pública como la cuarentena o el aislamiento son estrategias útiles para el control de una enfermedad; no obstante, también traen consecuencias sobre la salud mental. Objetivos: describir la prevalencia de síntomas de ansiedad y depresión en adultos de Lima Metropolitana, durante el periodo de aislamiento social en respuesta a la pandemia del COVID-19. Método: se utilizaron ítems de la Escala de Ansiedad de Lima [EAL-20] y de la Escala de Psicopatología Depresiva [EPD-6] en una muestra de 565 adultos que residen en Lima Metropolitana durante el Estado de Emergencia Sanitaria. Resultados: se identificó la prevalencia de síntomas relacionados a la ansiedad y depresión. Además, se encontraron diferencias en función del sexo, edad, nivel educativo, y la modalidad del trabajo o estudio. Conclusiones: el aislamiento obligatorio implica la prevalencia de síntomas de ansiedad y depresión en adultos de Lima Metropolitana, los cuales se manifiestan de diferentes formas al considerar variables sociodemográficas. Esto es congruente con estudios a nivel internacional, por lo que deberían considerarse al tomar decisiones ligadas a políticas públicas de salud.

El presente estudio tiene como objetivo analizar la asociación que existe entre estrés académico y bienestar psicológico, y el rol que ejerce la procrastinación académica en esta relación, en una muestra de estudiantes universitarios de pregrado. Participaron 391 estudiantes universitarios de pregrado de diversas universidades de Lima Metropolitana - Perú. Los constructos fueron medidos a partir de la adaptación española de las Escalas de Bienestar Psicológico de Ryff (SPWB), el Inventario Sistémico Cognoscitivista (SISCO SV-21) y la Escala de Procrastinación Académica (EPA). Los resultados indican que la procrastinación y el estrés académico presentan una relación negativa con respecto al bienestar psicológico. Además, la presencia de estresores y síntomas asociados al estrés académico, y la procrastinación resultan ser predictores relevantes del bienestar psicológico; sin embargo, la interacción entre ambas variables no implica un efecto significativo. Por lo tanto, se concluye que no existe un efecto moderador de la procrastinación académica en la relación entre estrés académico y bienestar psicológico. En su lugar, se halló que la procrastinación ejerce un rol moderador en la relación entre la presencia de estresores y el desarrollo de síntomas asociados al estrés académico.

The present study aims to analyze the prevalence of depressive symptoms and its sociodemographic-associated factors in Peruvian adults. Data was extracted from a nation-wide representative survey in which depression symptoms were measured with the PHQ-9 and sociodemographic information was extracted from household data. Depression severity rates were estimated for each symptom, and responses were modeled through the Rating Scale Model to obtain a depression measure used as dependent variable on a Generalized Mixed Linear Model. The most frequent depression symptoms were emotional, such as discouragement, sad mood, hopelessness, and lack of pleasure when doing activities. Our model showed that, after controlling the effects of all the variables considered, the most relevant predictors were gender, education level, physiographic region, age, marital status, and number of coresidents. Higher depression levels were found in women, people who did not complete higher education, participants living in the Highlands, older adults, single participants, and people living alone. Thus, interventions to promote or prevent depression severity during similar situations as the pandemic should focus on specific sociodemographic groups and their particular needs.

The aim of this study is to compare the reliability estimated through the application of a single test targeted on a whole population and two tests targeted on two specific groups that compose the population, in situations that vary according to the difference between the ability parameters means from each group. A Monte Carlo experiment was carried out considering the target of the assessment (targeting the population and targeting two specific groups) and the difference between ability parameters arithmetic means (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 standard deviations) as independent variables. Reliability was set as the dependent variable, estimated through the person separation reliability index. The data was generated according to the dichotomous Rasch model. A sample of 5000 subjects were simulated and their true ability parameters where sampled from a standard normal distribution. A test length of 40 items was set for every scenario and their difficulty parameters were simulated as an equidistant sequence from-2.5 to 2.5 standard deviations around the ability parameters arithmetic means. 1000 replicas were executed for each of the 8 experiment conditions established by the intersection between independent variables. Results were analyzed using a robust version of the factorial analysis of variance and multiple comparisons tests designed specifically for situations where the homogeneity of variance assumption is not met. Findings show that there is a statistically significant difference between the reliability of the measures estimated through a population targeted test and through group targeted tests, in every scenario of distance between ability parameters means. Nevertheless, the effect size shows that this difference is not relevant on practice.

Background: University students are vulnerable to developing mental health problems due to constant exposure to academic demands. A situation that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and observed in several recent studies. Therefore, current practices require further research and identification of potentially protective factors for mental health. Objective: This study aimed to analyze academic self-efficacy as a protective factor against depression, anxiety, and stress in university students. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used with 3525 university students from Lima, Peru. The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress was measured using the DASS-21. Academic self-efficacy was measured with the EPAESA and defined as a predictor of the three mental health conditions. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model, together with a multigroup analysis for gender and working status. Results: One-third of the sample had severe to extremely severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Academic self-efficacy was a moderately statistically significant predictor of the three mental health conditions. Relationships were invariant to gender and working status. Conclusions: Self-efficacy can be considered a protective factor for mental health. Interventions to promote academic self-efficacy may be effective in reducing depression, anxiety, and stress in university students. The findings are discussed together with current studies on the topic.