Stress in the face of transmissible diseases in university students of Psychology during COVID-19 pandemic

Chacaltana-Hernández K.; Gonzales-Garnique C.; Tataje-Okamoto A.; Varela S.; Valles J. · Interdisciplinaria (2025) · DOI: 10.16888/interd.2025.42.1.29

Resumen

Mental health in the world has been affected considerably because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the most visible problems in students has been stress. Stress is a human reaction, like answer of the interaction with many situations, one of them the academic, generating a preoccupation in health workers, who search to know the impact in the performance of students. Also, the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020) explains stress like a group of physical, psychological and behavioral reactions which alarm the body for action; so, stress is the biological alert system needed to human survival. This study has the purpose to compare stress in the face of transmissible diseases in university students of Psychology during COVID-19 pandemic. The first year of research participated 84 second year students who 73.8 % were women and 26.2 % men, also 95.2 % were single, 3.6 % live-in partner and 1.2 % divorced, finally 91.7 % were from 18 to 26 years old and 8.3 % from 27 to 59 years old. In 2021, 81 third year students participated in the research, who 72.8 % were female and 27.2 % male, with respect to the marital status 96.3 % were single, 2.5 % live-in partner and 1.2 % divorced, with respect to the age range 91.4 % were from 18 to 26 years old and 8.6 % from 27 to 59 years old, finally, in 2022, 77 fourth year students participated in the research, who 75.3 % were female and 24.7 % male, with respect to marital status 93.5 % were single, 3.9 % live-in partner, 1.3 % divorced and 1.3 % married, with respect to the age range 89.6 % were from 18 to 26 years old and 10.4 % from 27 to 59 years old; all the participants were Psychology students. About methodology, the type of investigation was longitudinal with three cuts and a non-experimental design without study variable manipulation: stress in the face of transmissible diseases; for the data harvesting procedure, we used the Stress Scale for Transmissible Diseases - APA Scale created in 2020 by Anicama and his co-workers, the stress scale have two dimensions: general stress and stress in the face of transmissible diseases. The stress scale has 18 items about the way of thinking, feeling and doing activities of daily life, in different situations in the last month, additionally, the stress scale has an acceptable validity and reliability for this study. The results say that not exist statistically significant differences in level of stress in the face of transmissible diseases from 2020 to 2022. Regarding the stress levels during the three years, the moderate level of stress is the most preponderant, also, we did not find statistically significant differences in sociodemographic variable: sex, activity and COVID-19 diagnostic during the three cuts of the study. In conclusion, we can express that stress has been an frequent human reaction like consequence of COVID-19 pandemic, the university students are one of the most affected population with mental health problems, also, COVID-19 pandemic is associated with clinical disorders like anxiety and depression, and they interfere with the academic activities and emotional development of the university students, for this reason is important that universities monitor and stablish strategies to control the stress level in their students. Finally, we recommend conducting post-pandemic COVID-19 research to understand the behavior and development of stress, so that universities can address it for the benefit of their student community.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional San Luis Gonzaga; Universidad Autónoma del Perú