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Relevance. In 2020 along with regular stress related to fi nal examinations, school graduates faced additional difficulties due to COVID-19 quarantine restrictions. Specifi cally, this stress could manifest itself in increased anxiety, depressive symptoms, and other signs of the low level of psychological well-being. Th e study aimed to compare anxiety and depression levels in school graduates and 9–10 graders and to analyze the role uncertainty coping patterns play in their psychological well-being. Method. Th e following questionnaires were used: Th e Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire in Russian adaptation by Kornilova; The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) adapted by Adryushchenko, Drobizhev, Dobrovolskiy, and our original survey “Applicants` main fears”. Th e study sample included 170 participants aged 16–18 from diff erent Russian cities and towns. Among them, 96 were school graduates planning to apply for university, and 74were students of 9 and 10 grades. Th e research was conducted online with the use of Google-forms. Participation was completely voluntary and anonymous. Results: Th e study showed that anxiety and depression symptoms were impacted by the preference towards uncertainty coping patterns. Vigilance as a coping pattern led to lower levels of anxiety and depression in both groups. Th ere were no signifi cant diff erences in anxiety and depression between graduates and 9–10 graders. Conclusions: Preferred uncertainty coping patterns can impact the psychological well-being of graduate and undergraduate school students.
Epishin et al. (Sat,) studied this question.