Covid-19 and the Emotional Health of Romanian Students

Abstract

Abstract The Covid-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on societies around the world, causing various reasons for concern among the population, from anxiety, stress, psychosomatic symptoms depression, or even suicidal thoughts. One of the most affected groups and a particularly vulnerable sector is that of students, who were able to fully feel the consequences of the pandemic and the psychological pressure related to it. This introduced several stress factors that had the potential to impact their emotional health. The most common problems were the sudden transition to online education, reduced or even non-existent social interactions, the fear of infection and the economic difficulties they faced during this period. We seek to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the youth have been affected, but also potential sources of support and intervention. We used a self-reporting online survey based on the “Balance model” from Positive Psychotherapy in order to assess the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on their emotional health and we also questioned the students about their coping strategies and the actions they consider helpful in such situations. The survey was completed by 1574 students from twenty universities in Romania and showed that a lot of them had professional, physical, and emotional difficulties which they faced mostly alone, without seeking assistance from any type of professional care, such as psychologists or specially designed helplines.