Literature Review #2
This study examines the binding mental health issues that are associated with COVID-19 and focus on the effect it has on college students. It included students' concerns for loved ones' health, difficulty with concentration, sleep patterns, social isolation, academic performance, eating, living environment, financial difficulties, depressive and suicidal thoughts. These researchers thought it was very important to evaluate this group of people because it is a large group that is vulnerable to mental illness prior to any global pandemic. The cause I am most interested in for my paper is the results specifying the mandated social isolation and distance and its effect on these college students. When completing his study the undergrad college researches trained in quantitative and qualitative methods did an interview survey guide of 195 students participants from Texas A&M assessing the status of students and their mental stability. This study was aware that “the prevalence of epidemics accentuates or creates new stressors including... constraints on physical movement and social activities due to quarantine, and sudden and radical lifestyle changes.” (son). This shows how mental health goes hand and hand with the restrictions of the pandemic. As a result of these sudden lifestyle changes, it was confirmed that “decreased social interaction due to physical distancing”(son) was seen as a factor that led to mental illnesses. 165 students out of 195 were recorded to have experienced this (82% of participants). Also “In particular, about one-third (52/167, 31%) shared their worries about a lack of in-person interactions such as face-to-face meetings.” (son). This study also has a few key terms that I found relatable to my topic, one of them being “self-management” which is the consciousness of one's thoughts and mental stability and being aware and able to manage those things yourself. A lot of students had done this instead of seeking help, and also relying on others going through the same experience as well. Another key term that came up frequently was “stigma” which is the disapproval of an action just because it does not meet societal standards. Lastly was the key phrase “Perceived Stress Scale” which was what the researchers used to evaluate the stressors that factored into college students' mental health.
Researcher Son is a PHD candidate and received his masters in safety engineering. Though he does not specialize in and mental illness research, he does work in the field of emergency management. I feel like this pandemic is something that is an emergency and needs to be managed and his research in the paper did come up with a lot of evidence and support for this cause. He also is in attendance at Texas A&M for his PHD and did the research on the students experiencing an increase in mental health problems.
This lit review is good and readable. The others are difficult to read because the text goes outside the bounds of the blog and runs across my screen. What was the difference between this blog post and the other ones you did?
ReplyDeleteI assume the others were cut and pasted from another program, which messed up the formatting. Go back and see if you can edit them by copying and repasting the material into the blog as plain text or without formatting? Something like that. Or use a text editor program which does not use formatting. Or just type into the blog -- it saves as you go and will keep the drafts for you.