COVID-19-Related Intolerance of Uncertainty and Mental Health among Back-To-School Students in Wuhan: The Moderation Effect of Social Support

Abstract

The current wave and future trend of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has triggered public uncertainty, causing unbearable psychological pressure on people. A cross-sectional online questionnaire was conducted among back-to-school students in Wuhan from 31 August 2020, to 14 September 2020, by using convenience sampling. A total of 1017 participants voluntarily provided sociodemographic characteristics and accomplished the following scales: the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS-12), the Social Support Scale (SSQ), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and the Insomnia Severity Index-7 (ISI-7). Results revealed that the levels of anxiety, depression, and insomnia were moderate, moderate and subthreshold, respectively. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance indicated that those with different attitudes toward the trajectory of the COVID-19 epidemic in China showed significantly different results in anxiety and depression (p < 0.001). Moderation modeling implicated that social support significantly moderated the predictive relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and mental health variables including anxiety and depression, but failed on insomnia. Findings indicate that back-to-school students in Wuhan experience mental health problems and improving social support measures could buffer the effect of intolerance of uncertainty with respect to COVID-19 on mental health.

Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Depressive Symptoms Among College Students in Wuhan, China During the Normalization Stage of COVID-19 Prevention and Control

“…The present results emphasize the importance of strong social support to prevent mental health disorders, which has been previously demonstrated (22,30,31). Positive social support can not only buffer the effect of uncertainty and stress related to the pandemic on depressive symptoms (30,32), but also increase the feeling of social connectedness, which could protect students against depressive symptoms (12). However, never or rarely seeking help from others or having fewer supportive relatives or friends may cause students to feel less connected with others and lead to a higher level of depressive symptoms.…”

“…After students returned to school, relevant departments should provide more academic support, such as academic guidance from teachers or trustworthy peers and lectures on learning methods or time management. Considering that the stage of epidemic prevention and control can last for a long time, colleges should regularly disclose prevention and control measures through official channels, which would be beneficial to decreasing student's feeling of uncertainty and, thus, reducing their anxiety and depression (32,62). Regarding the pressure of finding a job, the employment guidance department should carry out relevant thematic educational and consultation activities for these students.…”

“…A previous review shows that support from parents was the most important factor protecting against depression in Western children and adolescents (29). During the pandemic, this protective effect of social support on depression was consistently found in college students (15,22,(30)(31)(32). Furthermore, due to the strategy of staying at home, time spent on electronic devices increased markedly (33).…”

“…In September 2020, when the Chinese fall semester began, all college students returned to Wuhan from different regions of China. Although the pandemic had been almost completely under control in China, sporadic cases or local partial outbreaks remained (32), and confirmed cases continuously entered China from overseas (6,36), which might increase the student's uncertainty about the pandemic. Therefore, preventing pandemic resurgences was also very important, which would also increase the workload of universities, especially concerning college students' mental health conditions.…”

Effects of COVID‐19 lockdown on the mental health of dental students: A longitudinal study

“… 4 The results of this study support the literature, which showed that informal social support from family, friends, and peers improve self‐concept and provide effective help during times of stress. 25 , 27 …”