Coping Strategies as Predictors of Anxiety: Exploring Positive Experience of Chinese University in Health Education in COVID-19 Pandemic — Oak Academic Publishing
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Coping Strategies as Predictors of Anxiety: Exploring Positive Experience of Chinese University in Health Education in COVID-19 Pandemic
School of Art, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
,
School of Education, City University of Macau, Macau, China
1 School of Art, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
2 School of Education, City University of Macau, Macau, China
Background: It is urgent to identify the effective measures to cope with the psychological stress triggered by the precipitate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Objective: The present study aimed at examining the levels and links of the anxiety and coping strategies, and then exploring the coping predictors in anxiety in the crisis. Methods: An online survey was con ducted using stratified random sampling method among 2640 Chinese university students from 21 February to 24 February 2020. The students’ anxiety and coping strategies were measured by the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Cop ing Strategy Questionnaire (CSQ), respectively. Results: The students expressed high levels of coping strategies and comparatively low level of anxiety. Mul tiple stepwise regression analysis showed that cognitive coping, emotional coping, and social support had a significantly negative predictive effect on anxie ty, social support being the most powerful predictor, whereas behavioral coping predicted anxiety positively. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the enhancement of cognitive coping, emotional coping, and social support should be highlighted and the potential ly destructive impact of behavioral coping is noteworthy, and the pedagogical implications in health education are hereby addressed.
KeywordsCoping StrategyAnxietyPredictorExperienceChinese University StudentsCOVID-19 PandemicHealth Education
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