IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i3p1413-d735403.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mental Health during COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Optimism and Emotional Regulation

Author

Listed:
  • Imen Krifa

    (Université de Sousse, Faculty of Medicine of Sousse, Mental illness Epidemiology Research Laboratory LR12ES04, Screening and Early Management, Sousse 4000, Tunisia
    Université de Sousse, Higher School of Sciences and Techniques of Health of Sousse, Sousse 4054, Tunisia)

  • Llewellyn Ellardus van Zyl

    (Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, University of Eindhoven, 5612 Eindhoven, The Netherlands
    Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University (VTC), Vanderbijlpark 1900, South Africa
    Department of Human Resource Management, University of Twente, 7522 Enschede, The Netherlands
    Department of Social Psychology, InstitutfürPsychologie, Goethe University, 60323 Frankfurt, Germany)

  • Amel Braham

    (Université de Sousse, Faculty of Medicine of Sousse, Mental illness Epidemiology Research Laboratory LR12ES04, Screening and Early Management, Sousse 4000, Tunisia
    Farhat Hached University Hospital of Sousse, Department of Psychiatry, Sousse 4000, Tunisia)

  • Selma Ben Nasr

    (Université de Sousse, Faculty of Medicine of Sousse, Mental illness Epidemiology Research Laboratory LR12ES04, Screening and Early Management, Sousse 4000, Tunisia
    Farhat Hached University Hospital of Sousse, Department of Psychiatry, Sousse 4000, Tunisia)

  • Rebecca Shankland

    (Laboratory DIPHE (Development, Individual, Personality, Handicap, Education), Department of Psychology of Development, Education and Vulnerabilities, University Lumière Lyon 2, 69676 Bron, France
    Laboratory LIP/PC2S, Department of Psychology, University Grenoble Alpes/Savoie-Mont-Blanc, 38000 Grenoble, France)

Abstract

In light of different challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, university students are considered a particularly vulnerable population to mental health and study engagement issues. The first years at university represent a crucial period for students and are associated with an increase in mental health problems, particularly in healthcare studies. This study aimed (1) to document the current levels of mental health and study engagement among healthcare students in Tunisia, and (2) to investigate the relationships between emotional regulation, optimism, study engagement and common mental health problems (stress, anxiety and depression) among this population. A cross-sectional, electronic survey-based research design was used to draw a sample of 366 health care students from a University in Tunisia. Participants mostly reported mild (34.7%) or moderate (44.3%) levels of depression, moderate (44.7%) or severe (33.6%) levels of anxiety, average (50.8%) or mild (33.8%) levels of stress, and high levels of study engagement (>85%). Through structural equation modelling, the results showed that emotional regulation negatively affected stress, anxiety, and depression. Optimism partially mediated the relationship between emotional regulation, anxiety and depression and fully mediated the relationship between emotional regulation and study engagement. The findings indicated a high prevalence of psychological distress among healthcare university students in Tunisia, and specific protective factors that may be targeted to reduce mental health problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Imen Krifa & Llewellyn Ellardus van Zyl & Amel Braham & Selma Ben Nasr & Rebecca Shankland, 2022. "Mental Health during COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Optimism and Emotional Regulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-17, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1413-:d:735403
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1413/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1413/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michele Tugade & Barbara Fredrickson, 2007. "Regulation of Positive Emotions: Emotion Regulation Strategies that Promote Resilience," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 311-333, September.
    2. Vincenza Capone & Daniela Caso & Anna Rosa Donizzetti & Fortuna Procentese, 2020. "University Student Mental Well-Being during COVID-19 Outbreak: What Are the Relationships between Information Seeking, Perceived Risk and Personal Resources Related to the Academic Context?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-17, August.
    3. Llewellyn Ellardus Zyl, 2021. "Social Study Resources and Social Wellbeing Before and During the Intelligent COVID-19 Lockdown in The Netherlands," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 393-415, August.
    4. Sylvia Y. C. L. Kwok & Minmin Gu, 2017. "The Role of Emotional Competence in the Association Between Optimism and Depression Among Chinese Adolescents," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 10(1), pages 171-185, March.
    5. Tino Lesener & Leonard Santiago Pleiss & Burkhard Gusy & Christine Wolter, 2020. "The Study Demands-Resources Framework: An Empirical Introduction," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-13, July.
    6. Sophie Brasseur & Jacques Grégoire & Romain Bourdu & Moïra Mikolajczak, 2013. "The Profile of Emotional Competence (PEC): Development and Validation of a Self-Reported Measure that Fits Dimensions of Emotional Competence Theory," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(5), pages 1-8, May.
    7. Carla Barros & Ana Sacau-Fontenla, 2021. "New Insights on the Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence and Social Support on University Students’ Mental Health during COVID-19 Pandemic: Gender Matters," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-11, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Llewellyn E. Zyl & Babet Heijenk & Jeff Klibert & Rebecca Shankland & Nicolas B. Verger & Sebastiaan Rothmann & Vincent Cho & Katherine Feng & Eric W. K. See-To & Lara C. Roll & Leander Meij, 2022. "Grit Across Nations: The Cross-National Equivalence of the Grit-O Scale," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 3179-3213, October.
    2. Maurício Rech & Gabriela Bertoletti Diaz & Bruno Luis Schaab & Carolina Garcia Soares Leães Rech & Prisla Ücker Calvetti & Caroline Tozzi Reppold, 2023. "Association of Emotional Self-Regulation with Psychological Distress and Positive Functioning Dimensions in Brazilian University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(14), pages 1-13, July.
    3. Mayuri Gogoi & Adam Webb & Manish Pareek & Christopher D. Bayliss & Lieve Gies, 2022. "University Students’ Mental Health and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from the UniCoVac Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Mateusz Grajek & Karolina Krupa-Kotara & Mateusz Rozmiarek & Karolina Sobczyk & Eliza Działach & Michał Górski & Joanna Kobza, 2022. "The Level of COVID-19 Anxiety among Oncology Patients in Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-14, September.
    5. Yuxi Tang & Weiguang He, 2022. "Emotion Regulation and Psychological Capital of Chinese University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Serial Mediation Effect of Learning Satisfaction and Learning Engagement," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-15, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Llewellyn E. Zyl & Babet Heijenk & Jeff Klibert & Rebecca Shankland & Nicolas B. Verger & Sebastiaan Rothmann & Vincent Cho & Katherine Feng & Eric W. K. See-To & Lara C. Roll & Leander Meij, 2022. "Grit Across Nations: The Cross-National Equivalence of the Grit-O Scale," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 3179-3213, October.
    2. Javier Cejudo & Débora Rodrigo-Ruiz & Maria Luz López-Delgado & Lidia Losada, 2018. "Emotional Intelligence and Its Relationship with Levels of Social Anxiety and Stress in Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-11, May.
    3. François Bogacz & Thierry Pun & Olga M. Klimecki, 2020. "Improved conflict resolution in romantic couples in mediation compared to negotiation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Sabrina Cipolletta & Gabriela Rios Andreghetti & Giovanna Mioni, 2022. "Risk Perception towards COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Qualitative Synthesis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-25, April.
    5. Shuangshuang Xin & Xiujie Ma, 2023. "Mechanisms of Physical Exercise Effects on Anxiety in Older Adults during the COVID-19 Lockdown: An Analysis of the Mediating Role of Psychological Resilience and the Moderating Role of Media Exposure," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-15, February.
    6. Chuhua Zheng & Yanhong Wu, 2020. "The More Modest You are, the Happier You are: The Mediating Roles of Emotional Intelligence and Self-esteem," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(5), pages 1603-1615, June.
    7. David Sancho-Cantus & Laura Cubero-Plazas & Marta Botella Navas & Elena Castellano-Rioja & Montserrat Cañabate Ros, 2023. "Importance of Soft Skills in Health Sciences Students and Their Repercussion after the COVID-19 Epidemic: Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-10, March.
    8. Juwon Hwang & Porismita Borah & Dhavan Shah & Markus Brauer, 2021. "The Relationship among COVID-19 Information Seeking, News Media Use, and Emotional Distress at the Onset of the Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Urmila Rani Srivastava & Vandana Maurya, 2017. "Organizational and Individual Level Antecedents of Psychological Capital and its Associated Outcomes: Development of a Conceptual Framework," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 42(3), pages 205-236, August.
    10. Janusz Surzykiewicz & Sebastian Binyamin Skalski & Agnieszka Sołbut & Sebastian Rutkowski & Karol Konaszewski, 2022. "Resilience and Regulation of Emotions in Adolescents: Serial Mediation Analysis through Self-Esteem and the Perceived Social Support," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-9, June.
    11. Francesco Craig & Rocco Servidio & Maria Luigia Calomino & Francesca Candreva & Lucia Nardi & Adriana Palermo & Alberto Polito & Maria Francesca Spina & Flaviana Tenuta & Angela Costabile, 2023. "Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Health among Students Seeking Psychological Counseling Services," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-18, May.
    12. Virginia Fernández-Pérez & Ana Montes-Merino & Lázaro Rodríguez-Ariza & Patricia Esther Alonso Galicia, 2019. "Emotional competencies and cognitive antecedents in shaping student’s entrepreneurial intention: the moderating role of entrepreneurship education," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 281-305, March.
    13. Fritz, Charlotte & Taylor, Morgan R., 2022. "Taking in the good: How to facilitate savoring in work organizations," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 139-148.
    14. Sylvia Y C L Kwok & Siqi Fang, 2021. "A Cross-Lagged Panel Study Examining the Reciprocal Relationships Between Positive Emotions, Meaning, Strengths use and Study Engagement in Primary School Students," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1033-1053, March.
    15. Alessandra Macciotta & Domenica Farinella & Giuseppina Dell’Aversana & Marco Fornili & Davide Petri & Laura Baglietto & Michela Baccini & Carmen Berrocal Montiel & Giuseppe Fiorentino & Gianluca Sever, 2022. "Remote Working and Home Learning: How the Italian Academic Population Dealt with Changes Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-21, July.
    16. Anne-Sophie Baudry & Veronique Christophe & Emilie Constant & Guillaume Piessen & Amelie Anota & the FREGAT Working Group, 2020. "The Profile of Emotional Competence (PEC): A French short version for cancer patients," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-12, June.
    17. Kimberley Seear & Dianne Vella-Brodrick, 2013. "Efficacy of Positive Psychology Interventions to Increase Well-Being: Examining the Role of Dispositional Mindfulness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 1125-1141, December.
    18. Kakkar, Shiva & Vohra, Neharika, 2021. "Self-Regulatory Effects of Performance Management System Consistency on Employee Engagement: A Moderated Mediation Model," American Business Review, Pompea College of Business, University of New Haven, vol. 24(1), pages 225-248, May.
    19. Sylvia Y. C. L. Kwok & Minmin Gu, 2017. "The Role of Emotional Competence in the Association Between Optimism and Depression Among Chinese Adolescents," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 10(1), pages 171-185, March.
    20. Marina Schall & Thomas Goetz & Sarah E Martiny & Rebecca Maymon, 2015. "Responses to Success: Seeking Pleasant Experiences before a Task Is Complete?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-14, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1413-:d:735403. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.