Student stress and worry related to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused considerable stress and anxiety in the general population, especially among students. The objective of this study was to determine the stress and anxiety levels among medical rehabilitation students induced by distance educat...

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Main Authors: Jelena Zvekić-Svorcan, Jovana Šarenac, Milena Kovačević, Dragana Vukliš, Rastislava Krasnik, Andrijana Mikić, Jelena Mikov, Igor Mikov
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries 2023-04-01
Series:Journal of Infection in Developing Countries
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Online Access:https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/16922
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author Jelena Zvekić-Svorcan
Jovana Šarenac
Milena Kovačević
Dragana Vukliš
Rastislava Krasnik
Andrijana Mikić
Jelena Mikov
Igor Mikov
author_facet Jelena Zvekić-Svorcan
Jovana Šarenac
Milena Kovačević
Dragana Vukliš
Rastislava Krasnik
Andrijana Mikić
Jelena Mikov
Igor Mikov
author_sort Jelena Zvekić-Svorcan
collection DOAJ
description Introduction: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused considerable stress and anxiety in the general population, especially among students. The objective of this study was to determine the stress and anxiety levels among medical rehabilitation students induced by distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: The sample for this prospective cross-sectional study included 96 students pursuing the medical rehabilitation undergraduate degree at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. All respondents took part in an online survey created on the Google Forms platform and accessed via the Facebook social network. The questionnaire included a sociodemographic section, the perceived stress scale (PSS), and the worry about online learning scale (WOLS). All data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS version 25. Results: The study involved 96 students with an average age of 21.97 ± 1.55 years, 72.9% of whom were female. The total stress reported by the students during the COVID-19 pandemic was higher in females than in males (21.75 [SD = 7.50] vs. 17.84 [SD = 8.58]; p < 0.05). Younger students were more susceptible to experiencing stress during the pandemic (rho = -0.217, p < 0.05). Moreover, 57.3% of students suffered from moderate stress, while the WOLS scores indicated that distance education induced a high level of discomfort in this cohort (3.8 [IQR = 1.6]). Conclusions: Medical rehabilitation students showed a moderate level of stress and a high level of concern about distance education. This stress was more prevalent among younger students and females.
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spelling doaj-art-16868c4ece5c4776ba0a568e071846552025-08-20T02:57:04ZengThe Journal of Infection in Developing CountriesJournal of Infection in Developing Countries1972-26802023-04-01170410.3855/jidc.16922Student stress and worry related to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemicJelena Zvekić-Svorcan0Jovana Šarenac1Milena Kovačević2Dragana Vukliš3Rastislava Krasnik4Andrijana Mikić5Jelena Mikov6Igor Mikov7University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad, SerbiaUniversity of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad, SerbiaUniversity of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad, SerbiaUniversity of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad, SerbiaUniversity of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad, SerbiaDepartment of Psychology, College of Social Work, Belgrade, SerbiaUniversity of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad, SerbiaUniversity of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad, Serbia Introduction: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused considerable stress and anxiety in the general population, especially among students. The objective of this study was to determine the stress and anxiety levels among medical rehabilitation students induced by distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: The sample for this prospective cross-sectional study included 96 students pursuing the medical rehabilitation undergraduate degree at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. All respondents took part in an online survey created on the Google Forms platform and accessed via the Facebook social network. The questionnaire included a sociodemographic section, the perceived stress scale (PSS), and the worry about online learning scale (WOLS). All data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS version 25. Results: The study involved 96 students with an average age of 21.97 ± 1.55 years, 72.9% of whom were female. The total stress reported by the students during the COVID-19 pandemic was higher in females than in males (21.75 [SD = 7.50] vs. 17.84 [SD = 8.58]; p < 0.05). Younger students were more susceptible to experiencing stress during the pandemic (rho = -0.217, p < 0.05). Moreover, 57.3% of students suffered from moderate stress, while the WOLS scores indicated that distance education induced a high level of discomfort in this cohort (3.8 [IQR = 1.6]). Conclusions: Medical rehabilitation students showed a moderate level of stress and a high level of concern about distance education. This stress was more prevalent among younger students and females. https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/16922coronaviruseducationanxiety
spellingShingle Jelena Zvekić-Svorcan
Jovana Šarenac
Milena Kovačević
Dragana Vukliš
Rastislava Krasnik
Andrijana Mikić
Jelena Mikov
Igor Mikov
Student stress and worry related to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic
Journal of Infection in Developing Countries
coronavirus
education
anxiety
title Student stress and worry related to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full Student stress and worry related to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr Student stress and worry related to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Student stress and worry related to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short Student stress and worry related to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort student stress and worry related to distance education during the covid 19 pandemic
topic coronavirus
education
anxiety
url https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/16922
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