University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Department of Statistics
Academic year 19/20

Research Proposal on
Effect of Quarantine on the Emotional State of the Students in Applied Sciences
Faculty of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Prepared by
Umesha Savindi - AS2020343
Amaya Haripriya - AS2020449
Ruchini Silva - AS2020519

Submitted To Submitted Date

Dr. Hasanthi Pathberiya 13/03/2022
Senior Lecturer in Statistics
Department of Statistics
University of Sri Jayewardenepura

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 Table of Contents

Chapter 01- Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1

1.1Background ....................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................... 1

1.3 Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 1

1.4 Significance...................................................................................................................... 2

Chapter 02- Literature Review................................................................................................... 2

Chapter 03- Methodology .......................................................................................................... 3

3.1 Ethics Statement............................................................................................................... 3

3.2 Participants ....................................................................................................................... 3

3.3 Tools ................................................................................................................................ 3

3.4 Procedure and Statistical Analysis ................................................................................... 3

References .................................................................................................................................. 3

Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 4

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Chapter 01- Introduction
1.1Background

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis has resulted in the mental health as well as the emotional
well-being of millions, regardless of nationalities, being affected in many ways which is particularly
true when comes to the young crowd. According to the medical dictionary emotional state is
defined as a state of arousal characterized by alteration of feeling tone and by physiologic
behavioural changes. Joy, grief, fear, and anger are examples of emotions. Social isolation, lack
of interaction with peers, and for many, a loss of mental and financial security, all had an influence
on their everyday lives, including disrupting their education has caused these changes in their
emotions and mental health. As a result, youth are at a higher risk of developing depression, anxiety,
sorrow, and rage difficulties. Many studies have been conducted in order to depict the impact of the
quarantine on the mental health on the public. This study will include the impact of the COVID19
self-isolation on the emotional state of the undergraduates of the Applied Sciences faculty of
University of Sri Jayewardenepura. In addition, we would provide suggestions for intercession of
emotional state of the undergraduates in the university.

1.2 Problem Statement

Even though most of the studies are conducted on the effects on the mental health of the people
during COVID 19 pandemic lesser number of studies being conducted on the emotional state of
people. Mainly this concerns on the university students since they have been isolated at home and
distanced from friends and peers. There is a need to understand how the COVID 19 pandemic along
with the quarantine period has affected the emotional state of the undergraduates and how it has
affected to them. Moreover, these research questions are to be addressed,

1. What are the causes of change in the emotional state of the students?
2. How was the emotional state of the students before the COVID 19 situation and during the
pandemic?
3. How did they cope up with their emotions during the quarantine period?

1.3 Objectives

In concern with this concept, objective of this study is to analyse the effect of quarantine
on the emotional state of undergraduates in Faculty of Applied Sciences in University of Sri
Jayewardenepura.

Particularly, the study will have the following sub-objectives:

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 • To identify whether the emotional state during quarantine affected positively or
negatively.
• Causes for such change of emotional change during quarantine.
• Comparison of emotional states before quarantine and during quarantine.

1.4 Significance

Results presented by this study will help to take necessary steps to prevent such change
in emotional state and improve them during the quarantine period.

Chapter 02- Literature Review

Plenty of research conducted on the emotional state of undergraduate students during the
COVID-19 outbreak have postulated that quarantining has had a drastic downfall among
university students. The adaptation to an online education system has been a challenge
especially to those who lack the required experience and facilities. This has resulted in students
having difficulties in managing their psychological and academic demands (Hamaideh and
Hamdan-Mansour, 2014) along with susceptibility to psychosocial disruptions and heightened
levels of academic stress (Shehadeh, et al., 2020). Moreover, recent studies have documented
that most university students have been vulnerable to anger, fear, stress, nervousness, and other
emotional disruptions since the COVID-19 outbreak (Brooks, et al., 2020; Cao, et al., 2020).
These emotional states were reported to be higher during the quarantine period than in normal
circumstances, mainly due to the unexpected onslaught of online assignments and lectures,
followed by the anxieties that students have about their grades and graduation-related
difficulties (Hamaideh, et al., 2021; Sahu, 2020).

Although considerable number of studies have been conducted on the effects of quarantine
on undergraduate students across the globe, none of them were specific to the Sri Lankan
context (Aristovnik, et al., 2020; Lischer, et al., 2021). Furthermore, most of the previous
research focused only on the general mental health of students and not on their emotional states
during the pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to fill the gaps from past research by studying
the effects of quarantine on the emotional states of undergraduate students from the faculty of
applied science at a University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

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Chapter 03- Methodology
3.1 Ethics Statement

This study will be conducted in accordance with the code of ethics provided by the
ethical committee of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, along with the consent from all
subjects obtained using a Google form.

3.2 Participants

Participants will be recruited from the Faculty of Applied Science in the University of
Sri Jayewardenepura using stratified sampling. The population will be stratified based on the
gender to ensure equal representation of males and females.

3.3 Tools

The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Short Form (PANAS-SF) will be employed
as the main measure of construct. It is a standard psychometric tool where the responses are
rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very slightly or never) to 5 (very much).

3.4 Procedure and Statistical Analysis

Firstly, details of the selected sample including the name, age, gender and an email
address will be obtained at first using a Google form. Then a freely available version of PANAS-
SF tool provided by the Ohio State University will be emailed to the selected sample, following
up with sheet of instructions and other necessary details in order to avoid any misconceptions.
Lastly, the obtained responses will be screened for errors and will be analyzed according to the
standard scoring system given in the PANAS tool.

References

1. Aristovnik, A., Kerzic, D., Ravselj, D., Tomazevic, N., and Umek, L. (2020) Impacts of
the COVID-19 panemic on life of higher education students: A global perspective.
Sustainability. 12(20), 8438. Doi: 10.3390/su12208438

2. Brooks, S., Webster, R., Smith, L., Woodland, L., Wessly, S., Greenberg, N., and Rubin,
G. (2020) The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of
the evidence. Lancet, 395, 912-920. Doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8

3. Cao, W., Fang, Z., Hou, G., Han, M., Xu, X., Dong, J. and Zheng, J. (2020) The
psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China. Psychiatry
Research. 287, 112934. Doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112934

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4. Hamaideh, S., and Hamdan-Mansour, A. (2014) Psychological, cognitive, and personal
variables that predict college academic achievement among health sciences students. Nurse
Education Today. 34, 703 – 708. Doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2013.09.010

5. Hamaideh, S. H., Al-Modallal, H., Tanash, M. A., and Hamdan-Mansour, A. (2021)

Depression, anxiety and stress among undergraduate students during COVID-19 outbreak
and “home-quarantine”. Nursing Open. 1-9.

6. Lischer, S., Safi, N., and Dickson, C. (2021) Remote learning and students’ mental health
during the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-method enquiry. Prospects. 1-11.
7. Sahu, P. (2020) Closure of universities due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19):
Impact on education and mental health of students and academic staff. Cureus. 7541, 1-6.
Doi: 10.7759/cureus.7541

8. Shehadeh, J., Hamdan-Mansour, A., Halasa, S., Bani Hani, M., Nabolsi, M., Thultheen, I.,
and Nassar, O. (2020) Academic stress and self-efficacy as predictors of academic
satisfaction among nursing students. The Open Nursing Journal. 14, 92-99. Doi:
10.2174/18744 34602014010092

Appendix
Appendix- Contribution of Each Member

Name Contribution of Each Member

Umesha Savindi • Cover Page

(AS2020343) • 1.1Background: page no.1
• 1.2 Problem Statement: page no.1

Amaya Haripriya • Table of Contents

(AS2020449) • 1.3 Objectives: page no.1-2
• 1.4 Significance: page no.2
Ruchini Silva • Chapter 02- Literature Review: page no.2
(AS2020519) • Chapter 03- Methodology: page no.2-3
• References: page no.3-4