Psychological state and family functioning of University of Ibadan students during the COVID-19 lockdown

  1. Lucia Yetunde Ojewale

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Abstract

Background

The curtailment of social gatherings as well as lack of online academic engagement, due to the COVID-19 lockdown, could have potentially damaging effects on the psychological state of university students in Nigeria. This study examined the prevalence of anxiety and depression, including associated factors and coping methods among undergraduate students in a Nigerian university. It also examined the association between psychological state and family functioning.

Methods

The study design was cross sectional and involved 386 undergraduate students across the main faculties. The university’s ethical review board approved the study with approval number UI/EC/20/0242. An online questionnaire, using Google form, was circulated among the students through their faculty representatives. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADs) was used in assessing anxiety and depression, while family functioning was assessed using the McMaster Family Assessment Device, (FAD). Data was entered into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), and analysis carried out using descriptive statistics, chi-square, independent t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Post-Hoc analysis and linear logistics regression, at α 0.05.

Results

The mean age was 21±2.9 years, with a female population of 60.1%. Prevalence of anxiety and depression were 41.5% and 31.9% respectively. Students in health-related faculties were significantly less anxious than those in other faculties. Inability to afford three square meals, negative family functioning, having a chronic illness and living in a State/Region with a high incidence of COVID-19, was significantly associated with depression. These factors jointly accounted for 14% of depression seen in undergraduate students. Most of the students coped by engaging themselves in social media, watching television/movies and participating in other online skill development programmes.

Conclusion

There was a high prevalence of anxiety and depression among university students with poor family functioning, inability to afford three meals/day, living in a state with a high incidence of COVID-19 and having a chronic illness, contributing to depression. Measures need to be taken to support undergraduate students and their families to prevent negative consequences of poor mental health.

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  1. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.09.20149997v2 on medRxiv
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.09.20149997: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Data collection and analysis: After obtaining ethical approval from the University of Ibadan/University College Hospital ethical review board, the representatives of unions in the faculties were contacted through the students’ union vice president, who is a student at the Researchers’ department.
    IACUC: Ethical considerations: The study protocol was submitted to the University of Ibadan/ University College Hospital Ibadan (U.I. /UCH) ethical review committee for ethical approval.
    Consent: Those who decided to complete the form gave consent implicitly.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    The data collected were transferred from the goggle form excel to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 for analysis.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.09.20149997v1 on medRxiv