The psychological impact of COVID-19 restrictions on undergraduate students in Jordan

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 has spread all over the world since December 2019 causing millions of deaths. The pandemic has not only caused a risk of death from the infection but also caused psychological unbearable stress on people due to restrictions. Methodology: A sample of students from Jordanian different universities using a questionnaire has been conducted. The questionnaire has been prepared with different personal questions to correlate the answers with anger episodes/week. Results: 750 students participated and indicated that 13.6% and 20.9% of students have been facing severe anger episodes (>2) or moderate anger episodes (1-2) every week. Moreover, stable family income ((OR=0.901, 95%CI = 0.799-0.998), studying at private universities (OR=0.0.724, 95%CI = 0.627-.833) and living in the city centre (OR=0.0.698, 95%CI = 0.492-0.897) have a protective effect on anger episodes. However, student gender and study level have no significant effect on anger severity. Conclusion: Undergraduate and master’s students have faced severe conditions during the Covid-19 lockdown which had a direct psychological effect on them. Students’ situations and students’ study levels should be taken into consideration to provide a mental health program for whom under huge stress.