From University to Lockdown Due to COVID-19: Coping and Psychological Factors in Students

The COVID-19 lockdown led to a sudden transition from face-to-face classes to virtual platforms, causing important changes in academic, social and personal life. The aim of this study was to explore coping and psychological factors in college students during COVID-19 quarantine through an exploratory mixed-methods concurrent triangulation design. To describe and compare coping strategies, personality and symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress of N=497 students from public and private universities, the DASS-21, COPE-28, Mini-IPIP-20 tests and two focal groups of N=20 were conducted. The results show risk levels of stress, depression, and anxiety. The most frequent coping strategy was acceptance, linked to lower levels of anxiety and depression; followed by distraction, active coping, positive reframing, and planning. Least frequent were substance use, denial, and disconnection, related to higher symptoms. Main personality traits were agreeableness, related to higher stress, depression, and anxiety; openness, and conscientiousness. Multiple linear regression models predicted stress, anxiety and depression by coping skills of denial, self-blame, disconnection, catharsis, as well as personality traits of agreeableness and low emotional stability. Adding stress, anxiety or depression as predictors in models for each variable, total explained variance increases.