Depressive symptoms among Slovenian female tertiary students before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

analysis of two repeated cross-sectional surveys in 2020 and 2021

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the mental health of the general population. This holds true especially for vulnerable groups, including young people, students, and females. Our study examined cross-sectional changes in depressive symptoms from immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic (January/February 2020) to the second wave of the epidemic in Slovenia (January/February 2021) among female tertiary students. A multivariate analysis of two repeated cross-sectional surveys was performed using relatively homogeneous samples. The pooled sample included 418 young adult female students (Mage = 21.21 years). Depressed affect items were used to measure depressive symptomatology. All three feelings indicating depressed affect increased substantially and significantly from 2020 to 2021: feeling depressed (23% vs. 38%), lonely (16% vs. 43%), and sad (21% vs. 49%). In 2021, female students had almost a three-fold increase in the odds of reporting at least two out of three depressed affect symptoms compared to 2020 (19% vs. 43%; aOR 2.97; 95% CI 1.59–5.54; p < 0.001), adjusted for sociodemographic and socioeconomic confounders. Our findings suggest that Slovenian female students’ mental health deteriorated during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health professionals’ efforts to combat the pandemic’s mental health-related negative short-term and potential long-term impacts should thus focus on young people, especially on younger female students.

Keywords

simptomi depresivnosti;depresija;študenti;covid-19;duševno zdravje;pandemija;ne zaključna dela;depressive symptoms;depressed affect;students;mental health;pandemic;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2023
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UM FF - Faculty of Arts
Publisher:	MDPI
UDC:	316.346.32:159.974
COBISS:	165088259
ISSN:	2071-1050
Views:	108
Downloads:	2
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary keywords:	Depresija (psihologija);Študentke;SARS-CoV-2 (virus);Covid-19;Slovenija;
Type (COBISS):	Article
Pages:	str. 1-13
Volume:	ǂVol. ǂ15
Issue:	ǂiss. ǂ18
Chronology:	2023
DOI:	10.3390/su151813776
ID:	23385009