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Getting Through the Crisis Together: Do Friendships Contribute to University Students' Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

ABSTRACT: Social contacts and social support represent resources that contribute to resilience. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated measures, including contact restrictions, posed challenges for young adults' social networks, in particular for their friendships. Employing a mixed-method approach, we investigated the pandemic's effects on friendships and their role in successfully navigating the crisis. We combined a qualitative approach based on narratives and in-depth interviews and a quantitative approach based on online surveys focusing on university students in Austria. Longitudinal data collections allowed investigating changes and developments as the pandemic progressed. Results indicate profound challenges for participants' friendships and difficulties in both building new and maintaining existing friendships. This also impaired the provision of social support by friends, scattering participants' social resources and diminishing their resilience rather than strengthening it. Altogether, the results of this longitudinal study suggest a lasting negative effect of the pandemic on friendships for students.

SUBMITTER: Kulcar V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9149295 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Getting Through the Crisis Together: Do Friendships Contribute to University Students' Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Kulcar Vanessa V Bork-Hüffer Tabea T Schneider Ann-Malin AM

Frontiers in psychology 20220516

Social contacts and social support represent resources that contribute to resilience. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated measures, including contact restrictions, posed challenges for young adults' social networks, in particular for their friendships. Employing a mixed-method approach, we investigated the pandemic's effects on friendships and their role in successfully navigating the crisis. We combined a qualitative approach based on narratives and in-depth interviews and a quant ...[more]

PMID: 35651553

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Project description:This study explored the relationship between COVID-19 impacts and resilience in emerging adulthood during the final two months of the pandemic. It aimed to examine whether mental health symptoms moderated this relationship. In total, 205 university students completed an online questionnaire survey. Regression analysis was used to examine the prediction of resilience by pandemic-related impacts, and moderation analysis was used to explore the potential moderating effect of mental health on the relationship between impacts and resilience. The findings failed to confirm the hypothesis that total COVID-19 impacts would predict resilience. Rather, resource-type impacts predicted resilience [B = 0.17, p < 0.5]. Significant partial correlations found among resource, financial, and psychological impacts may go some way toward clarifying connections between impacts and resilience [for resource-type impact with financial-type impact, r = 0.48, p < 0.01; for resource-type impact with psychological impact, r = 0.22, p < 0.01]. The results confirmed the hypothesis that mental health symptoms would moderate the relationship between pandemic impacts and resilience [for the overall model, R = 0.41, ΔR2 = 0.16, MSE = 0.76, F (4, 200) = 10.19, p < 0.001; for the interaction between total COVID impacts and resilience, ΔR2 = 0.017, F (1, 200) = 3.98, p < 0.05]. Thus, emerging adult students with low or moderate levels of symptomatology were more resilient, independently of the level of pandemic-related stressors they faced. Those experiencing higher levels of mental health symptoms, in tandem with high levels of pandemic-related impacts, exhibited increasingly higher resilience levels [b = 0.17, 95% CI [0.02, 0.32], t = 2.26, p = 0.025]. These youths may be better equipped to handle severe stress and adversity thanks to skills and resources they possess and are experienced in using. The implications of these findings for each group of young people are discussed for their usefulness in directing future research and interventions to foster resilience during current and future crises and health pandemics.

Project description:BackgroundResilience is a crucial factor in students' mental health, playing an important role in their successful adaptation to the academic environment. However, there is a lack of understanding about resilience and its associated factors in students from different undergraduate courses. This study aimed to describe the resilience profile of undergraduate students from various courses in Brazil and identify sociodemographic, economic, and academic factors associated with resilience.MethodsThis study has data from a cross-sectional multicenter study involving undergraduate students from eight Federal Institutions of Higher Education in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The dependent variable was resilience, measured using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) 10-item version, with sociodemographic, economic, and academic factors considered independent variables. Data was collected virtually via a self-administered questionnaire between October 2021 and February 2022 (during the covid-19 pandemic). Independent samples t-tests and ANOVAs were conducted to compare resilience scores between independent variables, and Tukey's post-hoc test was performed when necessary. Multiple linear regression was performed to create three models.Results8,650 undergraduate students were included in this study. The average score on the resilience scale was 19.86 ± 8.15, with a normal distribution. The respondents ranged from 18 to 71 years old, averaging 23.9 ± 6.33. Being female, not having a religious belief, having low per capita family income, having had a decrease in the family income, not being heterosexual, or having the head of the family with a low education level were the main factors associated, individually, with low resilience scores in the sociodemographic and economic multiple linear regression model constructed. Being from linguistics, letters and arts courses, being enrolled in fewer subjects, or being from UFMG were the main factors associated, individually, with low resilience scores in the academic multiple linear regression model constructed.ConclusionsThe study's findings revealed that sociodemographic, economic, and academic variables were significantly associated with resilience scores in undergraduates from Minas Gerais during the covid-19 pandemic. These findings can help universities develop target strategies to promote students' resilience and reduce the risk of poor mental health among this population.

Project description:Background: There is no validated instrument for Persian-speaking students to apply the social-ecological resilience theory (SERT), which emphasizes the ecological resources for developing resilience. The study aimed at developing the student social-ecological resilience measure(Student-SERM) in Iran's context. Methods: Three separate samples of undergraduates participated in this mixed-methods research from the University of Tehran, Iran. Phase-1 qualitatively explored the resilience features in the university setting, to devise the university-specific subscale (USS). Phase-2piloted the construct validity and reliability of the Student-SERM in 242 undergraduates, who also completed Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Phase-3, as a cross-validation study, investigated 487 undergraduates, who completed the refined Student-SERM, HospitalAnxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and three indices screening academic performance, loneliness, and suicide acceptability. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Pearson's correlation, and Cronbach's alpha were performed. Results: Phase-1 yielded nine items for USS. In phase-2, EFA indicated the construct validity of the main 20-item measure (RMSEA=0.06 and SRMR=0.04) and the nine-item USS (RMSEA=0.07and SRMR =0.04), and the reliability and convergent/divergent validity were confirmed. In phase-3, EFA (RMSEA=0.07 and SRMR=0.04) and CFA (RMSEA=0.07, CFI=0.89, TLI=0.87,and SRMR=0.07) in two separate subsamples and CFA (RMSEA=0.06, CFI=0.92, TLI=0.90,and SRMR=0.06) in the total sample indicated the construct validity of the refined Student-SERM, including family, peer, culture, growth, and USS subscales. The reliability and convergent/divergent validity were also reconfirmed. Conclusion: The Student-SERM incorporates ecological resources, accounting for the students'resilience. Since the resilience process involves a return to healthy functioning after adversity, further research can examine the application of Student-SERM in high-risk student populations.

Dataset Information

Getting Through the Crisis Together: Do Friendships Contribute to University Students' Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

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Getting Through the Crisis Together: Do Friendships Contribute to University Students' Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

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