Psychological Impact of Covid-19 and Perceived Social Support as Predictors of Psychological Wellbeing among University Students
Abstract
A total of 289 participants comprising 154 female and 135 male, within the age range of 20 to 29 years, mean age of 22.82 and a standard deviation of 1.49 were selected making use of simple random sampling techniques, from the population of 4th year Students of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and Faculty of Law, Enugu State University of Science and technology (ESUT). A 22-item Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R; Weiss & Marmar, 1997), developed to assess subjective distress caused by traumatic events; A 12-item Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farely, 1988) to measure three dimensions of social support (Family, Friends, Significant Others) and 18-item Psychological well-being scale designed to measure the totality of the wellbeing of an individual were used in the study. Cross-sectional design was adopted while Hierarchical Multiple Regression was used to analyse the data. Results revealed that psychological impact of covid-19 predicted psychological wellbeing (β = -.72, t = 19.58, at P < .01), also, perceived social support predicted psychological wellbeing (Family, β = .25, t = 6.42, at P < .01; Friends, β = .41, t = 9.72, at P < .01; Significant Others, β = .36, t = 7.64, at P < .01).The findings were discussed in view of literature reviewed and recommendations were made.
