Depressive Symptoms among Slovenian Female Tertiary Students before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analysis of Two Repeated Cross-Sectional Surveys in 2020 and 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the mental health of the general population. This holds true especially for vulnerable groups, including young people, students, and females. Our study examined cross-sectional changes in depressive symptoms from immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic (...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2023-09, Vol.15 (18), p.13776
Main Author: Kirbiš, Andrej
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
COVID-19
Cross-sectional studies
Depression, Mental
Distance learning
Education
Females
Males
Mental depression
Mental disorders
Mental health
Pandemics
Psychological aspects
Public health
Stress
Students
Surveys
Sustainability
Teenagers
Unemployment
Youth
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Summary:The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the mental health of the general population. This holds true especially for vulnerable groups, including young people, students, and females. Our study examined cross-sectional changes in depressive symptoms from immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic (January/February 2020) to the second wave of the epidemic in Slovenia (January/February 2021) among female tertiary students. A multivariate analysis of two repeated cross-sectional surveys was performed using relatively homogeneous samples. The pooled sample included 418 young adult female students (Mage = 21.21 years). Depressed affect items were used to measure depressive symptomatology. All three feelings indicating depressed affect increased substantially and significantly from 2020 to 2021: feeling depressed (23% vs. 38%), lonely (16% vs. 43%), and sad (21% vs. 49%). In 2021, female students had almost a three-fold increase in the odds of reporting at least two out of three depressed affect symptoms compared to 2020 (19% vs. 43%; aOR 2.97; 95% CI 1.59–5.54; p < 0.001), adjusted for sociodemographic and socioeconomic confounders. Our findings suggest that Slovenian female students’ mental health deteriorated during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health professionals’ efforts to combat the pandemic’s mental health-related negative short-term and potential long-term impacts should thus focus on young people, especially on younger female students.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su151813776