Coping with COVID-19: The Strategies Adapted by Pakistani Students to Overcome Implications

Gul Muhammad Baloch, Kamilah Kamaludin, Karuthan Chinna, Sheela Sundarasen, Mohammad Nurunnabi, Heba Bakr Khoshaim, Syed Far Abid Hossain, Areej Al Sukayt and Laareb Gul Baloch
Additional contact information
Gul Muhammad Baloch: School of Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Taylor’s University, No. 1, Jalan Taylors, Subang Jaya 47500, Selangor, Malaysia
Kamilah Kamaludin: Department of Accounting, Prince Sultan University, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia
Karuthan Chinna: School of Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Taylor’s University, No. 1, Jalan Taylors, Subang Jaya 47500, Selangor, Malaysia
Sheela Sundarasen: Department of Accounting, Prince Sultan University, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia
Mohammad Nurunnabi: Department of Accounting, Prince Sultan University, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia
Heba Bakr Khoshaim: Deanship of Educational Services, Prince Sultan University, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia
Syed Far Abid Hossain: College of Business Administration, International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, 4 Embankment Drive Road, Sector-10, Uttara Model Town, Dhaka 1230, Bangladesh
Areej Al Sukayt: Department of Accounting, Prince Sultan University, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia
Laareb Gul Baloch: School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: COVID-19 has speedily immersed the globe with 72+ million cases and 1.64 million deaths, in a span of around one year, disturbing and deteriorating almost every sphere of life. This study investigates how students in Pakistan have coped with the COVID-19. Zung’s self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) was used for measuring anxiety and the coping strategies were measured on four strategies i.e., seeking social support, humanitarian, acceptance, and mental disengagement. Among 494 respondents, 61% were females and 77.3% of the students were in the age group of 19–25 years. The study findings indicate that approximately 41 percent of students are experiencing some level of anxiety, including 16% with severe to extreme levels. Seeking social support seemed to be the least preferred coping strategy and that female students seek social support, humanitarian, and acceptance coping strategies more than males. Students used both emotion-based and problem-based coping strategies. The variables of gender, age, ethnicity, level and type of study, and living arrangement of the students were associated with usage of coping strategies. Findings showing that students do not prefer to seek social support. The study outcomes will provide basic data for university policies in Pakistan and the other countries with same cultural contexts to design and place better mental health provisions for students.

Keywords: coping strategies; anxiety; adaptive/maladaptive; problem-focused coping; students; mental health; COVID-19; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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