Psychological and Behavioural Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Students: A Study on a Selected Public University in Bangladesh
Main Article Content
Abstract
While the COVID-19 pandemic has far-reaching consequences on public health, little focus has been paid so far in empirical research on the psychological and behavioural effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the students. As such, this study was intended to examine the psychological and behavioural effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on students. The study was conducted in Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU) in Bangladesh, employing a survey research design. Primary data were collected from a total of 150 undergraduate students selected from 17 academic departments of the NSTU based on snowball sampling. The study shows that the COVID-19 pandemic, with several protective measures to reduce the community transmission, has various adverse psychological effects on the students. The complexity of the pandemic is positively associated with the increase of their several psychological conditions such as anxiety, depression, tension, fear or panic, restlessness, boredom, and loneliness. The study reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic is also positively associated with the increase of several behavioural conditions of the students such as their time spent on social media, level of change in daily routine works, level of inattentiveness to study, and level of non participation in daily study. The study indicates that the association between the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes of several psychological and behavioural conditions of the students are statistically significant. Hence, the study opines that the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects the mental health and well-being of the students. Further, the study suggests that the NSTU should set up an educational guidance and counselling centre in order to address the adverse psychological and behavioural conditions of the students during the pandemic or any other critical situation. Moreover, the families and teachers should play an important role to keep up the mental health and well-being of the students through motivation and individual counselling.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Artaza, I. (2020, May 22). Social cohesion and community resilience in the face of covid-19. The Express Tribune. Retrieved from https://tribune.com.pk/story/2226525/6-social-cohesion-community-resilience-face-covid-19
Babbie, E. (2010). The practice of social research. Belmont: Wadsworth. Banerjee, D., & Rai, M. (2020). The social isolation in COVID-19: The impact of loneliness. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 66(6), 525–527. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020922269
Bhat, B. A., Khan, S. Manzoor, S., Niyaz, A., Tak, H. J., Anees, S. U. M., & Gull, S. (2020). A study on impact of Covid-19 lockdown on psychological health, economy and social life of people in Kashmir. International Journal of Science and Healthcare Research, 5(2), 36–46.
Bodrud-Doza, M., Shammi, M., Bahlman, L., Islam, A. R. M. T., & Rahman, M. M. (2020). Psychological and socio-economic crisis in Bangladesh due to pandemic: A perceptionbased assessment. Frontiers in Public Health, 8(341), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00341
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Why you should know about COVID-19 to yourselves and others. Retrieved 5 July 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/2019-ncov-factsheet.pdf
Chao, M., Chen, X., Liu, T., Yang, H., & Hall, B. J. (2020). Psychological distress and state boredom during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: the role of meaning in life and media use. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1769379
Corder, G. W., & Foreman, D. I. (2009). Nonparametric statistics for non-statisticians: A step by step approach. New Jersey: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118165881
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method approaches. London: SAGE.
Donthu, N., & Gustaffson, A. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on business and research. Journal of Business and Research, 117, 284–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.008
Dragan, I. M., & Isaic-Maniu, A. (2013). Snowball sampling completion. Journal of Studies in Social Science, 5(2), 160–177.
Dubey, S., Biswas, P., Ghosh, R., Chaterjee, S., Dubey, M. J., Chaterjee, S., Lahiri, D., & Lavie, C.J. (2020). Psychological impact of COVID-19. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome Clinical Research & Reviews, 14(2020), 779–788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.05.035
Emon, E. K. H, Alif, A. R., & Islam, M. S. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on institutional education system and its associated students in Bangladesh. Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies, 11(2), 34–46. https://doi.org/10.9734/ajess/2020/v11i230288
Gao, J., Zheng, P., Jia, Y., Chen, H., Mao, Y., Chen, S. Wang, Y., Fu, H., & Dai, J. (2020). Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak. PLOS ONE, 15(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231924
Hagerty, S. L., & William, L. M. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on mental health: The interactive roles of brain biotypes and human connection. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health, 5(2020), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2020.100078
Islam, M. A., Barna, S. D., Raihan, H., Khan, M. N. A., & Hossain, M. T. (2020). Depression and anxiety among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: A web-based cross-sectional survey. PLOS ONE, 15(8), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238162
Jakovljevic, M., Bjedov, S., Jaksic, N., & Jakovljevic, I. (2020). COVID-19 pandemia and public and global mental health from the perspective of global health security. Psychiatria Danubina, 32(1), 6–14. https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd.2020.6
Khan, S., Siddique, R., Li, H., Ali, A., Shereen, M. A., Bashir, N., & Xue, M. (2020). Impact of coronavirus pandemic on psychological health. Journal of Global Health, 10(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010331
Li, S., Wang, Y., Xue, J., Zhao, N., & Zhu, T. (2020). The impact of Covid-19 epidemic declaration on psychological consequences: A study of active Weibo users. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(6), 2032. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062032
Liu, X., Luo, W. T., Li, Y., Li, C. N., Hong, Z. H., Chen, H. L., Xiao, F., & Xia, J. Y. (2020). Psychological status and behavior changes of the public during the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Infectious Diseases of Poverty, 9(58), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-020-00678-3
Kumar, R. (2011). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. London: SAGE.
Nachmias, F. C., & Nachmias, D. (2008). Research methods in the social sciences. New York: Worth Publishers.
Nicola, M., Alsafi, Z., Sohrabi, C., Kerwan, A., Al-Jabir, A., Iosifidis, C., Agha, M. & Agha, R. (2020). The socio-economic implications of coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19): A review. International Journal Surgery, 78(2020), 185–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.04.018
Ojetunde, A. O, Bamigbala, O. A., & Oyegoke, T. (2020). COVID-19 lockdown policy impact on students' psychological, behavioral, and daily routine changes: A case study of Gusau residents in Nigeria. Indonesian Journal of Educational Studies, 23(2), 118–144.
Ozili, P. (2020). Covid-19 in Africa: Socio-economic impact, policy response and opportunities. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-05-2020-0171
Rajkumar, R.P. (2020). Covid-19 and mental health: A review of existing literature. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 52(2020), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102066
Schleicher, A. (2020). The impact of Covid-19 on education-insights from education at a glance 2020. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Sharma, G. (2017). Pros and cons of different sampling techniques. International Journal of Applied Research, 3(7), 749–752.
Suppawittaya, P., Yiemphat, P., & Yasri, P. (2020). Effects of social distancing, self-quarantine and self-isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s well-being and how to cope with it. International Journal of Science and Healthcare Research, 5(2), 12–20.
Taber, K. S. (2017). The use of Cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education. Research in Science Education, 48, 1273–1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2
United Nations. (2020). Shared responsibility and global solidarity: Responding to socio-economic impact of Covid-19. New York: Author.
Vos, J. D. (2020). The effect of COVID-19 and subsequent social distancing on travel behaviour. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 5(2020), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2020.100121
Wang, J., Wang, J. X., & Yang, G. S. (2020). The psychological impact of Covid-19 on Chinese individuals. Yonsei Medical Journal, 61(5), 438–440. https://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2020.61.5.438