Wan Mohd Yunus Wan Mohd Azam, Badri Siti Khadijah Zainal, Panatik Siti Aisyah, Mukhtar Firdaus
Department of Psychology, School of Human Resource Development and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia.
Research Centre for Child Psychiatry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Front Psychiatry. 2021 Feb 16;11:566221. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.566221. eCollection 2020.
Malaysia's first Movement Control Order (MCO) or "lockdown" was in place for 6 weeks to curb the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Consequently, all universities were forced to close temporarily with abrupt changes to teaching and learning activities. However, there has been a lack of consensus regarding students' actual psychological status and mental health during the MCO implementation. This study investigates the link, state, and differences of negative emotional symptoms, happiness, and work-life balance among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study recruited 1,005 university students across Malaysia. Data was collected online using Qualtrics to measure negative emotional symptoms (The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale), happiness (The Oxford Happiness Inventory), and work-life balance (Work-Family Conflict Scale). All data was analyzed using SPSS version 25 and AMOS version 26 using -test, ANOVA, logistic regression analyses, and path analysis method. Findings indicated that 22, 34.3, and 37.3% of the university students scored moderate to extremely severe levels of stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms, respectively. Half scored rather happy or very happy (50%) for happiness levels. Meanwhile, 50.4 and 39.4% scored high to very high levels of work-to-family and family-to-work conflict. Significant differences in stress, anxiety, depression, happiness, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict were recorded across different demographic factors. Happiness was found to be a protective factor with a lesser likelihood of experiencing severe stress (OR = 0.240, 95% CI: 0.180, 0.321), anxiety (OR = 0.336, 95% CI: 0.273, 0.414), and depression (OR = 0.121, 95% CI: 0.088, 0.165) with higher happiness levels. Higher score of work-to-family conflict contributes to greater odds of having severe levels of anxiety (OR = 1.453, 95% CI: 1.161, 1.818). While greater likelihood of developing severe stress (OR = 1.468, 95% CI: 1.109, 1.943) and severe anxiety (OR = 1.317, 95% CI: 1.059, 1.638) under increasing score of family-to-work conflict. Besides, happiness is found to negatively linked with lower negative emotional symptoms, while work-family conflict and family-work conflict are positively linked with higher negative emotional symptoms. Lockdown implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have a significant impact on university students' negative emotional symptoms, happiness, and work-life balance. Happiness was found to be a protective factor while the state of work-life balance is a risk factor that can predict students' negative emotional symptoms.
马来西亚首个行动管制令（MCO）即“封城”实施了6周，以遏制冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的传播。因此，所有大学都被迫暂时关闭，教学活动也突然改变。然而，在行动管制令实施期间，对于学生的实际心理状态和心理健康，尚未达成共识。本研究调查了COVID-19大流行期间大学生负面情绪症状、幸福感和工作生活平衡之间的联系、状况及差异。本研究招募了马来西亚各地的1005名大学生。通过Qualtrics在线收集数据，以测量负面情绪症状（抑郁、焦虑和压力量表）、幸福感（牛津幸福感量表）和工作生活平衡（工作-家庭冲突量表）。所有数据均使用SPSS 25版和AMOS 26版进行分析，采用t检验、方差分析、逻辑回归分析和路径分析方法。研究结果表明，分别有22%、34.3%和37.3%的大学生压力、焦虑和抑郁症状得分处于中度至极其严重水平。一半学生的幸福感得分处于相当幸福或非常幸福（50%）水平。同时，50.4%和39.4%的学生工作对家庭和家庭对工作冲突得分处于高至非常高的水平。在不同人口统计学因素中，压力、焦虑、抑郁、幸福感、工作-家庭冲突和家庭-工作冲突均存在显著差异。研究发现，幸福感是一个保护因素，幸福感水平较高时，经历严重压力（OR = 0.240，95%CI：0.180，0.321）、焦虑（OR = 0.336，95%CI：0.273，0.414）和抑郁（OR = 0.121，95%CI：0.088，0.165）的可能性较小。工作对家庭冲突得分越高，出现严重焦虑水平的几率越大（OR = 1.453，95%CI：1.161，1.818）。而随着家庭对工作冲突得分增加，出现严重压力（OR = 1.468，95%CI：1.109，1.943）和严重焦虑（OR = 1.317，95%CI：1.059，1.638）的可能性更大。此外，研究发现幸福感与较低的负面情绪症状呈负相关，而工作-家庭冲突和家庭-工作冲突与较高负面情绪症状呈正相关。COVID-19大流行期间实施的封城似乎对大学生的负面情绪症状、幸福感和工作生活平衡产生了重大影响。幸福感是一个保护因素，而工作生活平衡状况是一个可预测学生负面情绪症状的风险因素。
