Relationship Between Stress and Anxiety Regarding COVID-19 with Some Individual-Familial Characteristics Among First-Semester Students

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had many effects on various aspects of individuals’ lives, including causing physical and mental problems. One of the most common psychological problems, especially among first-semester students, is stress and anxiety related to COVID-19. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between stress and anxiety with some individual-familial characteristics of first-semester students. Methods: The current descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 106 first-semester nursing students with different educational levels at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran, in 2021. The sampling method in this study was census sampling. A researcher-made demographics questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Reactivity Scale, and the Corona Disease Anxiety Scale were used for data collection. In the current study, the data were collected online using electronic questionnaires. SPSS software (version 26.0) and independent t-test, Spearman’s correlation, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. Results: The mean age of the participant was 22.3 ± 10.94 years. The total scores of anxiety and stress were 8.23 ± 5.85 and 19.38 ± 5.62, respectively. The results of Spearman’s correlation test showed a significant relationship between age and stress (P = 0.001, r = 0.290). The results of the t-test showed that there were significant differences between gender (P = 0.034), marital status (P = 0.003), and work experience (P = 0.008) with stress. In addition, a significant difference was observed between educational level and stress using ANOVA (P = 0.029). Conclusions: Paying more attention to the psychological health of first-semester students provides a favorable environment for their educational success during the COVID-19 pandemic because stress and anxiety affect students’ performance in various aspects of their individual and social lives.