Academic Community in the Face of Emergency Situations: Sense of Responsible Togetherness and Sense of Belonging as Protective Factors against Academic Stress during COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

In the face of emergency situations, such as a global pandemic, individuals rely on their personal resources, but also on community dimensions, to deal with the unprecedented changes and risks and to safeguard their well-being. The present study specifically addresses the role of individual resources and community dimensions with reference to academic communities facing COVID-19-related lockdowns and the changes that these have implied. An online questionnaire was administered to 1124 Italian University students. It detected their sense of belonging and of responsible togetherness with reference to their academic community through community dimensions, their student self-efficacy as an individual resource, and their academic stress—potentially stemming from studying in the middle of a pandemic. A multiple mediation model was been run with structural equation modeling. The results show that both the community dimensions associate with higher student self-efficacy and the sense of responsible togetherness, while also associating with lower academic stress. Moreover, student self-efficacy, in turn, associates with lower academic stress and mediates the relationships between both community dimensions and students’ academic stress levels. From these findings, the protective role that community dimensions can exert on an individual’s life becomes apparent. Building on this, further strategies should be implemented to reinforce personal and community resources in order to strengthen individuals against potentially stressful circumstances.

Italian Community Psychology in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Shared Feelings and Thoughts in the Storytelling of University Students

“…From a community psychology perspective, in line with the COVID-19 Statement of EFPA ECPA, 2020 , we hope that some collective feelings described by our young Italian respondents during the pandemic will build “new ways of understanding the networks of communities we are part of.” Building trust and solidarity is a long-term process, involving public and private sectors (Capone et al, 2020 ; Procentese et al, 2020 ). Communities in many countries are amazingly active in strengthening their feeling of belonging and building new forms of community.…”

Academic and emotional effects of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic on engineering students

“…This lack of contact is worrisome since social contact and socialization routines are part of the daily experience of higher education students and can affect their academic development (UNESCO, 2020). In the context of online classes during the pandemic, a greater connection with the community has been related to greater self-efficacy and engagement and lower academic stress (Luan et al, 2020;Procentese et al, 2020). Connection with fellow students and teachers is one of the variables that has received the most attention in the academic community concerning the experience in online education.…”

“…Investigations pointed out that students have experienced an increase in stress, anxiety, and depression (Aslan et al, 2020;Odriozola-González et al, 2020;Saravanan et al, 2020;Son et al, 2020), and have felt some negative feelings intensified, such as fear, worry, or boredom (Aristovnik et al, 2020;Son et al, 2020). Several studies have highlighted the protective effect that the connection with the rest of the academic community can have on anxiety, depression, and stress (Elmer et al, 2020;Magson et al, 2021;Procentese et al, 2020). Although mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic has received much attention in the academic field, studies have focused on analyzing adverse mental states such as depression, stress, or anxiety, but a broader perspective on the emotional state of the students, including a wider range of emotions and considering positive emotions such as calm or trust, is still missing.…”

Psychological Lockdown Experiences: Downtime or an Unexpected Time for Being?

“…As a result, creating spaces in which people share their personal stories and ask questions about their common experiences is a preliminary goal of community psychology-based intervention strategies, while subsequently detecting meaning and symbolization in their interactions is the next step in promoting social awareness and community building (Arcidiacono, 2016;. Feeling part of a community where you share projects and consider the response of institutional members and referents reliable favors collective self-efficacy and the management of stress generated by this unforeseen emergency (Procentese et al, 2020).…”

“…New individual and social insights about "we-ness" awareness arise (Walker et al, 2020), strengthening solidarity, connectedness and shared experiences of "we-ness, " and improving individual and community well-being (Procentese et al, 2020;Di Napoli et al, 2021).…”