Coping strategies adopted by students and professors in the COVID-19 pandemic context: a cross-sectional study

Le résumé fourni par la source

Introduction: In face of the COVID-19 crisis, classroom activities at universities were interrupted in Brazil, following the guidelines of health agencies to minimize coronavirus contamination levels, with implications for students’ and professors’ mental health. Objective: To identify the coping strategies used by students and professors of a Brazilian university during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the associated sociodemographic and institutional/academic variables. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out using an online questionnaire with questions on socioeconomic aspects and applying the Ways of Coping Scale. Results: 671 students and 231 professors from a public university in the south of Brazil enrolled in the study. Students and professors used more problem-focused coping strategies followed by searching for social support. Regarding the professors, the variables frequency of leaving home and gender were positively associated with the problem and emotion-focused strategies and religion/fanciful thought strategies, respectively. Regarding the students, women used predominantly emotion-focused and religious/fanciful thought strategies. Students aged 27 or more used more problem-focused and 18-20 and 21-26 years old used predominantly emotion-focused strategies. Living with family and leaving home for 8 days or more were associated with the religious/fanciful thought strategy. Conclusion: Attention should be given to gender, age, and frequency of leaving home, when planning mental health actions to foster the use of a wider range of coping strategies adopted by university students and professors throughout moments of developmental crisis, such as the ones that emerged across pandemics.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.