Coping Strategies, Anxiety and Mental Health Among Female Undergraduate Students in Kosova

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the possible effects of coping strategies and anxiety on mental health among female undergraduate students in Kosovo. 492 students (M = 20.54, SD = 1.98) from three universities, voluntarily completed the Mental health SRMH, the Brief-COPE self-report questionnaire, the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, and a sociodemographic survey through a web-based Google form. Descriptive, correlation, t-Test, ANOVA, linear and multiple regressions were used. 65% suffered from anxiety and 62.6% of them rated their general health as poor. Students of second and third year reported more poor mental health (64.5%; 64.1%; 66%) and higher anxiety level (47.7%; 36.8%; 36.4%) than other students. There was a significant moderate positive relationship only between the anxiety and avoidant coping style. The hierarchical regression models indicated that the mental health score of students were predicted by being infected with COVID-19 (P = 0.00), study year (P = 0.00), and type of university (P = 0.000). Overall, the findings indicated that coping strategies don’t appear to predict mental health among students (P>0.00). The universities should be more aware of the students’ mental health. Organizing intervention programs with professionally trained counselors, may be one of the activities provided for them