Factors Associated with Acute Stress Among Undergraduate and Graduate Students after the First Month of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Anxiety Sensitivity, Fear of Covid-19, Sex

Abstract

As with any life-threatening event, the Covid-19 outbreak causes people to have emotional reactions such as fear and anxiety. Understanding people’s emotional responses to the pandemic is important to understand mental health results. This study investigated the relationships between the levels of acute stress disorder symptoms, anxiety sensitivity, and fear of coronavirus. Data for this aim was collected from university students between the ages of 18 and 55 through an online research form. Data was collected between 23 April 2020 and 29 May 2020. Analysis of 739 participants showed that 67.9% of the participants had symptoms of acute stress ranging from moderate to extreme. It was also observed that anxiety sensitivity, fear of coronavirus, and sex explained 31.0% of the variance in acute stress symptom levels. Also, it was observed that the fear of coronavirus was higher in women than in men. The results point out that support systems that aid psychological well-being such as accessible online psychological help, and online social support groups have great importance during and after the pandemic. It has been thought that it may be beneficial to develop intervention programs targeting anxiety sensitivity to prevent trauma symptoms.