Social Support and Dietary Habits as Anxiety Level Predictors of Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dorota Ortenburger, Dariusz Mosler, Iuliia Pavlova and Jacek Wąsik
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Dorota Ortenburger: Department of Kinesiology and Health Prevention, Jan Dlugosz University of Czestochowa, 42200 Czestochowa, Poland
Dariusz Mosler: Department of Kinesiology and Health Prevention, Jan Dlugosz University of Czestochowa, 42200 Czestochowa, Poland
Iuliia Pavlova: Theory and Methods of Physical Culture Department, Lviv State University of Physical Culture, 79007 Lviv, Ukraine
Jacek Wąsik: Department of Kinesiology and Health Prevention, Jan Dlugosz University of Czestochowa, 42200 Czestochowa, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-14

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency concern and a challenge to students’ mental health due to changes in education and social isolation. The aim of this research was to expand knowledge about the relations that shape the level of anxiety amongst men and women who are studying during the pandemic in terms of the relations towards their sense of social support and their nutritional behaviors. A State–Trait Anxiety Inventory was used to measure anxiety level, alongside supplementary questions such as the feeling of support from close ones, concentration of attention on nutrition during the pandemic and externally derived factors (university, specialization). Analysis of the regression was applied to the examination of the dependency between the anxiety level (in both forms of its occurrence—as state-anxiety and as trait-anxiety). We observed that the pandemic situation affected a level of state-anxiety above average (mean value of 46–48 points) even when students felt social support. Nutrition habits and chosen education type are associated with trait-anxiety level, which was also elevated (mean values of 49–50 points). Chosen factors had a partial influence on the anxiety level of students, therefore their mental health should concern shaping positive nutrition habits and social support.

Keywords: STAI; anxiety; social support; nutrition habits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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