Anxious and Angry: Early Emotional Adaptation of Medical Students in a Situational Crisis on the Example of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Julia Wyszomirska (), Monika Bąk-Sosnowska and Anna Daniel-Sielańczyk
Additional contact information
Julia Wyszomirska: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences in Katowice, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, 40-752 Katowice, Poland
Monika Bąk-Sosnowska: Center for Psychosomatics and Health Prevention, WSB University in Dąbrowa Górnicza, 41-300 Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland
Anna Daniel-Sielańczyk: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences in Katowice, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, 40-752 Katowice, Poland

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of a situational crisis resulting in emotional destabilization. The aim of the study was to analyze changes in the level of anxiety and anger in medical students during the early adaptation to the situational crisis, and to estimate the risk factors for fear and anger in this group. Methods: Participants were 949 medical students (M = 22.88, SD = 4.10) in the first stage on March 2020, and 748 (M = 22.57, SD = 3.79) in the second stage on June 2020. The STAI, STAXI-2, and our own questionnaire were used. Results: First vs the second stage: anxiety state ( p < 0.001), anger state ( p = 0.326), and feeling angry ( p < 0.05). The regression model (F(14.1681) = 79.01, p < 0.001) for the level of anxiety state explains 39% of the dependent variable variance ( r 2 = 0.39). The model for the anger-state level (F(6.1689) = 68.04, p < 0.001)-19% ( r 2 = 0.19). Conclusions: During the early adaptation to the situational crisis, the general level of anxiety decreased, but anger was at the same level. The anxiety was explained by contact with potentially or objective infected persons, and the level of anger was based on the need for greater social support.

Keywords: anxiety; anger; medical students; crisis situations; emotional state; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1847/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1847/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:1847-:d:1040849

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().