Factors associated with the mental health of adolescent university students during COVID-19 quarantine in Japan

Abstract

Background: University students in Japan have been quarantined during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The resulting social avoidance may increase students’ anxiety about the pandemic and adversely affect their mental health. To obtain basic data for a university health policy, we investigated factors associated with the mental health status of 570 students of a national university in Japan during quarantine. Methods: Participants completed an online questionnaire assessing respondent characteristics (gender, age, department, domicile status), subjective sense of anxiety about COVID-19, and number of social supports. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12 was used as a marker for mental health status, and sense of coherence (SOC) was used as a marker for stress resistance. Chi-square tests, t-tests, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis were conducted to identify factors associated with GHQ score. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to identify the interaction between anxiety score and SOC scores. Results: Females showed significantly more adverse mental health than males. Regardless of gender, the strongest factor associated with GHQ score was anxiety about COVID-19, which impaired mental health status, followed by SOC score, which improved mental health status. The ANOVA results showed a significant interaction effect on GHQ scores between anxiety and SOC score in males. High SOC scores mitigated the negative effect of anxiety on mental health more than did low SOC scores, especially in males with low to medium levels of anxiety.Conclusions: The results indicate that fear of COVID-19 impaired mental health status, but SOC worked as a buffer to mitigate the negative effect of anxiety on mental health, especially among male students. Given the health risks associated with gender, universities should provide psychological care to encourage students to maintain a confident daily routine and to foster higher SOC, especially for male students.

Psychological distress in the time of COVID-19: The relationship between anxiety, hopelessness, and depression and the mediating role of sense of coherence.

“…A third finding of the study was that higher SOC was associated with less psychological distress, that is, lower anxiety, depression, and hopelessness. This finding is supported by several studies (Gómez-Salgado et al, 2020; Hirano et al, 2020; Schäfer et al, 2020) conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic that suggest that individuals high in SOC experience fewer adverse psychological symptoms and cope more effectively with distress compared with those with low SOC. High SOC has been associated with improved health status, greater work engaged, and fewer family and work-related conflicts (Gómez-Salgado et al, 2020).…”

“…According to Antonovsky (1993), SOC affects how individuals perceive life stressors and influences their appraisals of the extent to which they can cope with adverse circumstances. Individuals with high SOC tend to use task-oriented problem-solving approaches and positive reframing to cope with stress (Hirano et al, 2020). It is probable that young adults in the sample with high SOC are able to appraise pandemic-related restrictions as time-limited, aimed at promoting their safety, and an opportunity to spend more time with loved ones and deepen these relationships.…”

Prevalence of Depression and Associated Factors Among Quarantined Individuals During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Tigrai Treatment and Quarantine Centers, Tigrai, Ethiopia, 2020: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…This was supported by studies carried out in China, Italy, Spain, and Japan. 36,[38][39][40][41] In the current study, as the duration of quarantine increased by one unit, depression among quarantined individuals increases by 1.3. This might be due to individuals being unable to adapt to a new environment and prolonged periods of loneliness.…”

The Role of Sense of Coherence During the COVID-19 Crisis: Does it Exercise a Moderating or a Mediating Effect on University Students’ Wellbeing?

“…Overall, studies indicating moderating effects of SOC during the COVID-19 pandemic often had small effect sizes and findings were inconsistent with effects differing for genders (Hirano et al, 2020) or contrasting directions of the interaction (Barni et al, 2020). Therefore, based on the available studies, a buffering effect of SOC for mental health impacts of the COVID-19 crisis cannot be verified.…”

“…They additionally observed the reverse moderating effect of SOC for the association of fear of infection with wellbeing: People with stronger SOC reported lower wellbeing when they feared a COVID-19 infection but the effect was less pronounced in people with weaker SOC. In a preprint, Hirano et al (2020) surveyed 570 university students (59% women) and reported a moderating effect of SOC in male Japanese students, but not in female students. Male students with anxiety of COVID-19 reported fewer mental health impairments when their SOC score was higher, supporting a buffering effect in men only.…”