Saúde mental e autoeficácia percebida de estudantes do ensino superior durante a crise da covid-19

Abstract

To assess health university students' general self-efficacy beliefs during coping with Covid-19 and to analyze whether this construct is influenced by sociodemographic characteristics, psychological well-being, and anxious and depressive symptoms. Methods: Correlational study, developed with undergraduate students of Nursing, Medicine and Psychology from a public Higher Education Institution (HEI) in a city in the interior of São Paulo state. The sample comprised 329 participants, who responded to the following instruments: Sociodemographic Characterization, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, General and Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Data collection was carried out in the second half of 2022, remotely, through Google Forms. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the self-efficacy and GHQ-12 scores with the sample characterization variables of up to two levels and the Kruskal-Wallis test for the sample characterization variables with more than two levels with a subsequent test of Dunn's multiple comparison when P<0.05. To verify the association between anxiety and depression symptoms and the sample characterization variables, the Chi-Square test was used. The correlation between self-efficacy scores and GHQ-12 were verified using Spearman's correlative test. The significance level adopted for the tests was 0.05 or 5%. Results: Participants have showed moderate levels of general and perceived self-efficacy (34.32± 7.49), which were associated with gender (p=0.001), housing (p=0.033), course (p<0.001), year of graduation (p<0.006), accomplishment with the course (p=0.001), overload of activities (p<0.001), stress (p<0.001), physical exercise (p<0.001), leisure (p<0.001), self-harm (p<0.025), suicidal ideation (p<0.003) and pandemic (p<0.001). Higher scores of self-efficacy beliefs were correlated with high levels of psychological well-being (p<0.001; r= -.582) and absence of anxious (p<0.001) and depressive symptoms (p<0.001). Most of the participants said that the pandemic harmed their mental health (85.71%), 56.84% had symptoms of anxiety and 31% of depression. In addition, 16.72% of academics reported suicidal thoughts. Conclusion: Health students' general self-efficacy beliefs were at moderate levels and were influenced by psychological well-being and symptoms of anxiety and depression. According to the students' perception, the Covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on their mental health. These findings have demonstrated the university educational experience as a space for universal psychoeducational interventions aimed at promoting personal resources. Strengthening self-efficacy beliefs in universities can be useful to improve student´s health behaviors as well as to prevent mental disorders.