Illness attitudes and the flourishing of university students of South Korea in a pandemic: a cross-sectional descriptive study.

Since the onset of the Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2019, the virus has continued to experience periodic resurgences, and the evolution of new variants remains unpredictable. The greatest anxiety in Korean is now related to novel diseases, with a significant increase from 2.9% in 2018 to 32.8% in 2022. Excessive health concerns during the pandemic can lead to negative health behavior, highlighting their impact on well-being. This study aimed to identify how illness attitudes perceived by students during the pandemic influence their flourishing lives, and to examine the effects of health-promoting behaviors and social support on this relationship. A cross-sectional study was conducted using self-report questionnaires of 226 university students aged 18 to 35 years. We found that mental health issues among university students can hinder their flourishing growth in both the present and the future, while social support and health-promoting behavior act as sequential mediators between illness attitudes and flourishing. Healthcare professionals should offer flexible interventions that encourage health behaviors even in constrained environments and collaboration with social support within meaningful relationships is also required.