Busetta Giovanni, Campolo Maria Gabriella, Panarello Demetrio
Department of Economics, University of Messina, Via dei Verdi 75, 98122 Messina, Italy.
Department of Statistical Sciences "Paolo Fortunati", University of Bologna, Via delle Belle Arti 41, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
Qual Quant. 2023;57(1):59-76. doi: 10.1007/s11135-022-01330-y. Epub 2022 Feb 28.
The COVID-19 pandemic has produced an extensive aggravation of people's anxiety level. Different policies aimed at fighting the spread of the virus could affect anxiety in various ways. We built an ad hoc web-based survey, administered to the student population of three Italian universities at the beginning of the pandemic and at one year's distance, to collect information on retrospective and current anxiety levels and the underlining reasons. The survey also included questions concerning sociodemographic, economic, labor, lifestyle, academic career, and on-line teaching features, which prevents students from identifying the main survey topic to be anxiety. This research aims at assessing the change in anxiety levels between the analyzed periods and the main determinants of such change, focusing on students' economic expectancies. Results from a Poisson regression model show that anxiety has increased compared to both the pre-pandemic level and the one quantified during the first lockdown. This increase is revealed to be mostly driven by economic and career-related uncertainties, rather than by job loss and proximity to COVID-19. Thus, policymakers should take action to provide certainties both in terms of economic prospects and reopening strategies, especially to avoid that the resulting increase in anxiety translates into an amplified suicide risk.
新冠疫情使人们的焦虑程度大幅加剧。旨在抗击病毒传播的不同政策可能会以各种方式影响焦虑情绪。我们开展了一项专门的基于网络的调查，在疫情初期和一年后对三所意大利大学的学生群体进行了调查，以收集有关回顾性和当前焦虑水平及潜在原因的信息。该调查还包括有关社会人口统计学、经济、劳动、生活方式、学术生涯和在线教学特点的问题，这使得学生们无法确定主要的调查主题是焦虑。本研究旨在评估分析期间焦虑水平的变化以及这种变化的主要决定因素，重点关注学生的经济预期。泊松回归模型的结果表明，与疫情前水平以及首次封锁期间量化的水平相比，焦虑情绪有所增加。这种增加主要是由经济和职业相关的不确定性驱动的，而非失业和与新冠病毒的接近程度。因此，政策制定者应采取行动，在经济前景和重新开放战略方面提供确定性，特别是要避免由此导致的焦虑情绪增加转化为更高的自杀风险。
