There is a high prevalence of anxiety and depression in university students as they face overwhelming pressures to succeed academically. A relationship between academic stress and academic...Show moreThere is a high prevalence of anxiety and depression in university students as they face overwhelming pressures to succeed academically. A relationship between academic stress and academic resilience, among students can be found in the literature However, there has not been as much exploration into the extent to which academic resilience can operate as a moderating factor between academic stress and its effect on depressive and anxiety symptoms manifested by students. Τhis cross-sectional study focused on the role of academic resilience in moderating the depression and anxiety symptoms in university students. A total of 221 university students completed a battery of self-report questionnaires; 1) Law Student Perceived Stress scale (LSPSS, modified version for students in general), 2) Generalized Anxiety Scale-7 (GAD-7) for anxiety, 3) Patient-Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for depression, and 4) Academic Resilience Scale (ARS-30) for academic resilience. Results showed that that academic stress significantly impacted depression and anxiety symptoms. However, the results did not support the hypothesis that academic resilience can operate as a moderating factor between academic stress and the manifestation of symptoms of anxiety and depression. Though the initial hypothesis was rejected, the findings of this study underline the need for implementing stress management programs within the academic settings in order to facilitate students to achieve their goals with no psychological burden, as higher academic stress was related to higher symptoms of anxiety and depression.Show less
Background. Student populations show higher prevalence rates of procrastination and symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression compared to the general population. Previous research found evidence...Show moreBackground. Student populations show higher prevalence rates of procrastination and symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression compared to the general population. Previous research found evidence for an association between mental health and procrastination. The current study investigated the association of procrastination with mental health problems using the network perspective and dealt with the question whether procrastination is a state or a trait. Methods. We used Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to collect data from 79 undergraduate students from Dutch universities. Our participants answered questions concerning procrastination and symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression four times a day over a time course of two weeks. We estimated contemporaneous and temporal networks to gain insight in the dynamic connections between these constructs. Moreover, we assessed procrastination with a questionnaire before and after two weeks and compared both assessments in order to investigate if procrastination categorizes as a state or a trait. Results. We found significant contemporaneous associations of procrastination with symptoms of anxiety and depression and a temporal association between procrastination and anxiety. Pre- and posttest on procrastination did not differ significantly. Conclusions. Symptoms of anxiety and depression co-occur at the same point in time and procrastination is a predictor for anxiety symptoms. The pre- and posttest results indicated no change of procrastination over time. However, the dynamic network analysis indicated fluctuations of procrastination over time and situation. We concluded that procrastination exists at trait and state level. It is important to mention that data collection took place during the Covid-19 outbreak.Show less
Previous research has investigated the association between hunger and mental health. Although constructs such as stress, anxiety and depression have been indeed found to be related to appetite,...Show morePrevious research has investigated the association between hunger and mental health. Although constructs such as stress, anxiety and depression have been indeed found to be related to appetite, results are often contradictory and point to different causal directions. The present study investigates such associations in a student population of 84 individuals, by means of an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) method. Participants’ perceived levels of stress, anxiety, depression and hunger were recorded four times per day, during a two-weeks period. In addition, before accessing the study, students had to fill in a baseline assessment, which allowed for a further investigation of the relationship between trait and state hunger. A network approach was utilized for the first statistical analysis, allowing for the depiction of contemporaneous, temporal and between-subjects network, whilst a linear regression analysis was used to compare hunger data at baseline and during EMA. Results failed to replicate previous findings concerning appetite and mental health, as for all networks, hunger was not associated with any other variable of interest. However, we were able to identify a linear relationship between trait and state hunger, with the former being a significant positive predictor of the latter.Show less
