College students’ compliance with government measures for social isolation and quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreak: A focus on psychological predictors

Abstract

BACKGROUND: To contain the COVID-19 pandemic, government adopted several measures to restrict social contacts including isolation, quarantine, and limitations on movement from location to location around the country. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the degree to which Italian college students agreed and complied with these measures and to determine if psychological variables have influenced compliance. METHODS: We evaluated 6075 students concerning their agreement with the government’s restrictions, as well as their health anxiety, trait positive and negative affect, and current symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. We performed MANOVAs, ANOVAs, path analysis, and binary logistic regressions. RESULTS: We found some differences in compliance with government restrictions concerning gender, geographic location, and major of study. Psychological variables did not play a significant role in predicting compliance with restriction measures and making a call for medical help. However, health anxiety predicted higher levels of worries about having contracted the virus. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, university-based interventions should primarily focus on males to foster compliance with government restriction during a pandemic, or health crisis. College students –Social Sciences students in particular –could benefit from counseling interventions to avoid the development of psychological disorders fueled by pandemic worries.

El confinamiento durante la pandemia por COVID-19: su efectividad y grado global de adherencia

“…Globalmente, el mayor incumplimiento de las medidas de confinamiento fue en los participantes de Italia, lo que fue atribuido, en parte, a las mejores temperaturas en ese país. En otro estudio en Italia (Loscalzo y Giannini, 2022), realizado en estudiantes de 18 a 68 años, se encontró en general una disposición a acatar las medidas de confinamiento, aunque en promedio salían de su casa menos de dos veces por semana y un 10% viajó a otras ciudades o regiones, a pesar de la prohibición gubernamental de hacer estos viajes. Paykani et al (2020) reportaron también un bajo cumplimiento con la indicación gubernamental de permanecer en casa en el 20,5 % de los participantes, de acuerdo con los resultados de una encuesta telefónica realizada en una localidad en Irán entre el 4 y el 12 de abril del 2020, fechas que coincidieron con la finalización de las festividades del año nuevo persa, durante las cuales es costumbre en ese país salir a visitar a parientes y amigos.…”

Introducing medical students to radiological anatomy: The importance of experiential learning during the Covid‐19 pandemic lockdowns

“…It is essential to highlight that the effects of the pandemic had consequences reaching beyond the educational context for many students. Studies have identified that students experienced economic concerns, decreases general wellbeing, and mental health struggles related to social isolation, estrangement, frustration, confusion, and anger (Loscalzo & Giannini, 2022 ). They now face considerable uncertainty about their present and the future, and because of this, students have become despondent about their personal and professional development (Butnaru et al, 2021 ; Cheng et al, 2021 ; Leal Filho et al, 2021 ; Rahiem et al, 2021 ).…”