How did the COVID-19 Pandemic Situation Affect Students Dealing with Anxiety at Texas

A&M University at Qatar?

Introduction
Anxiety is experiencing intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday
situations (anxiety noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes: Oxford
Advanced American Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com). It is widely common
among students, especially college students, “Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent
psychiatric problems among college students, with approximately 11.9 % of college students
suffering from an anxiety disorder” (Pedrelli et al. College Students: Mental Health
Problems and Treatment Considerations). At this time of the year, university students that
are dealing with anxiety seem to be struggling the most with the changes that the COVID-19
pandemic brought. This sudden change contributed to their stress and anxiety levels. Many
studies on college students’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic situation have
been conducted since students’ mental stability has been an increasing concern (J. Mistler
College students' mental health is a growing concern, survey finds). It is important to figure
out what is causing the rise in college students with anxiety to be able to accommodate
their essential needs. In addition, to raise awareness about this issue so more students with
undiagnosed anxiety seek mental health support.

Method
A web-based software, "Qualtrics Survey" was used to conduct the survey and collect the data
from students at Texas A&M University at Qatar where they can share their experience with
anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic anonymously. There were ten questions in the survey.
The questions were about what symptoms they had and whether or not their anxiety levels
were affected during the pandemic situation. The survey link was distributed to all students
at Texas A&M University at Qatar via email and the mobile application “WhatsApp”.
Results and Discussion

Fifty-nine participants took part in the survey. Forty students were female (67.80%), eight-
teen students were male (30.51%) and one person did not specify their gender (1.69%).
Figure 1

As you can see from the figure below, most of the responses were from freshmen making
37.93% of all students. 29.31% were sophomores, 15.52% were seniors, 13.79% were juniors,
and the rest chose “other”. These results show that most students that are struggling with
the changes the COVID-19 brought are freshmen which is probably because of the sudden
switch from learning in real life in high school to remote learning in first year university.

Figure 2
Figure 3 shows how frequently students experience any of the symptoms listed below.
50.88% of students chose “almost always” for having difficulty in concentrating and
controlling feelings of worry. This shows that most students struggle with these two
symptoms regularly. In addition, it proves that almost all students are dealing with a particular
symptom of anxiety.

Figure 3
As shown in figure 4, 62.16% of students indicated that they have personally experienced
anxiety symptoms which is most of them, 29.73% of them know someone who is dealing with
anxiety and 8.11% claimed they have not experienced any symptoms nor do they know
someone who did. Only a small number of students have not experienced the anxiety
symptoms that were listed below and that does not necessarily mean they have not
experienced any symptom because the ones listed were only a few.
Figure 4

In figure 5, it shows that most respondents ranked “Keeping up with academics” as the
number one for contributing the most to their anxiety and “family issues” as the least one
that contributed to their anxiety. This shows that the rise in students with anxiety is because
of work overload which stresses them constantly.

Figure 5
In the figure below, it shows how were students’ anxiety levels affected during the COVID-
19 pandemic. 83% of the participants asserted that their anxiety levels have increased and
57% of them indicated that it increased substantially. Because of the sudden changes the
COVID-19 pandemic brought, students’ stress and anxiety levels increased trying to cope
with the situation.

Figure 6

Figure 7 shows that 44.83% of students sleep for 4-5 hours and 39.66% sleep for 6-8 hours.
This shows that most students sleep for a fair amount of time but still 44.83% of them sleep
for 4-5 hours which is not enough sleep on an average.

Figure 7
The results shown in figure 8 show how many students in Texas A&M University at Qatar have
gotten or considered a diagnosis for mental illness. As shown below, 60.34% of the
respondents have not considered getting a diagnosis and 10.34% claimed they did consider
but they believe it does not help. This shows that there are students dealing with anxiety
symptoms and not knowing how to cope with it because they think it will not help.
Additionally, most of the students are not aware of the anxiety symptoms that they might
have or that it is because of the stigma around mental illness that is stopping them from
getting a diagnosis.
Figure 8

Participants were asked in the survey to share their thoughts on what Texas A&M University
at Qatar can do to accommodate students dealing with anxiety during the COVID-19
pandemic. Twenty-seven students (45.76%) responded to the question, one of the
respondents suggested that “By promoting mental health, removing taboos associated with
mental health struggles. Having community gatherings to discuss mental health. Mental
health training for staff, professors and students.” For students with anxiety to be more
comfortable. Another student recommended that the university ministry should “Listen to
students’ concern about work overload. Create activities that encourage and motivate
students” to be able to accommodate their needs. A responder claimed that “Making the
professors understand what anxiety truly is (that it’s simply not just stress)” would help the
students that are dealing with anxiety. The students were also asked about what they would
do if their friend was experiencing any symptoms of anxiety. Twenty-six people responded
(44.07%), one of the students responded with “Offer to listen to them about what makes
them feel this way even if sometimes it is hard to pinpoint what the triggering factor is.” To
stop triggering anxiety. A survey participant replied with “By being there to support them and
giving them encouraging words to keep them going”. Another response was “Refer them to a
doctor”.
Conclusion

The administrators and faculty at Texas A&M University at Qatar can support students dealing
with anxiety by raising more awareness on campus about anxiety and its symptoms. It is
important to educate both students and the staff about mental health disorders to reduce
the stigma around it. They can also encourage students that are experiencing any symptoms
to seek mental health support by making it easier to access mental health services.
Additionally, listening to students’ concerns, taking their suggestion into consideration and
trying to understand their perspective will help solve problems faster.

Work cited

“Anxiety Noun - Definition, Pictures, Pronunciation and Usage Notes: Oxford Advanced
American Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com.” Anxiety Noun - Definition,
Pictures, Pronunciation and Usage Notes | Oxford Advanced American Dictionary at
OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com,
www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/anxiety#:~:text=1%5
Buncountable%5D%20anxiety%20(about,a%20time%20of%20great%20anxiety.

Pedrelli, Paola, et al. “College Students: Mental Health Problems and Treatment
Considerations.” Academic Psychiatry : the Journal of the American Association of
Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic
Psychiatry, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Oct. 2015,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4527955/.

J. Mistler, Brian. “College Students' Mental Health Is a Growing Concern, Survey Finds.”
Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, June 2013,
www.apa.org/monitor/2013/06/college-
students#:~:text=Anxiety%20is%20the%20top%20presenting,clients%20were%20taki
ng%20psychotropic%20medications.