The effect of self-efficacy on students’positive mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic
List of Authors
  • Hua Wang , Sharifah Muzlia Syed Mustafa

Keyword
  • Positive Mental Health Education, Self-Efficacy, Well-Being

Abstract
  • The COVID-19 pandemic led to a notable rise in the worldwide incidence of anxiety and depression, primarily attributed to social isolation. A key takeaway from this experience is the importance of fostering resilience and adaptability among individuals. Given the established significant relationship between self-efficacy and resilience, this study seeks to confirm the influence of self-efficacy on the positive mental health status of China students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study findings indicated that self-efficacy, an internal psychological resource, had a positive impact on students' positive mental health (well-being) during the COVID-19 pandemic (P < 0.05). Therefore, it is suggested that when carrying out positive mental health education under the epidemic situation, colleges and universities should pay attention to the cultivation of college students' sense of self-efficacy, to improve their positive mental health level, enhance their positive psychological quality and internal psychological resources to cope with similar public health emergencies, effectively relieve pressure and enhance well-being.

Reference
  • 1. Aristovnik, A., Keržič, D., Ravšelj, D., Tomaževič, N., & Umek, L. (2020). Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on life of higher education students: A global perspective. Sustainability, 12(20), 8438.

    2. Abelskamp, G.E.; Santamarinam, J.C. Academia During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study within the Geo-Science and Engineering Field. Available online: http://alertgeomaterials.eu/data/posts/Abelskamp_and_Santamarina_2020_Academia_During_COVID19Pandemic.pdf (accessed on 15 June 2020).

    3. Bai, K., Kohli, S., & Malik, A. (2017). Self-efficacy and hope as predictors of mental health. Indian Journal of Positive Psychology, 8 (4), 631-635.

    4. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    5. Bandura, A. (1992). Self-efficacy mechanism in psychobiologic functioning. In R. Schwarzer (Ed.), Self-efficacy: Thought control of action. (pp. 355---394). Washington: Hemisphere.

    6. Barrera, M. (2000). Social Support Research in Community Psychology. Springer US, Boston, MA. https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4193-6_10

    7. Bisschop, M. I., Kriegsman, D. M., Beekman, A. T., & Deeg, D. J. (2004). Chronic diseases and depression: The modifying role of psychosocial resources. Social Science & Medicine, 59, 721---733. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.11.038

    8. Chang J H, Yuan Y X, Wang D. (2020). Mental health status and influencing factors of college students under the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic. Journal of Southern Medical University (02),171-176.

    9. Cucinotta, D.; Vanelli, M. (2020). WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic. Acta Bio-Medica Atenei Parm, 91, 157–160.

    10. Kamarianos, I.; Adamopoulou, A.; Lambropoulos, H.; Stamelos, G. (2020). Towards and understanding of university students’ response in times of pandemic crisis (COVID-19). Eur. J. Educ. Stud.7, 20–40.

    11. Ma, L., Wang, X., Liao, Q.Y. (2020). Influence of stress events on college students' mental health in novel coronavirus pneumonia. Health Research, 40 (3): 257-260.

    12. Mo, Y., Deng, L., Zhang, L., Lang, Q., Pang, H., Liao, C., Wang, N., Tao, P., & Huang, H. (2021). Anxiety of nurses to support Wuhan in fighting against covid-19 epidemic and its correlation with work stress and self-efficacy. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 30 (3–4), 397–405.

    13. Schwarzer, R. , Born, A. , Iwawaki, S. , & Lee, Y. M. . (1997). The assessment of optimistic self-beliefs: comparison of the chinese, indonesian, japanese, and korean versions of the general self-efficacy scale. Psychologia, 40(1), 1-13.－392.

    14. Tan, Y., Huang, C., Geng, Y., Cheung, S. P., & Zhang, S. (2021). Psychological well-being in Chinese college students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Roles of resilience and environmental stress. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 671553. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.671553

    15. Tian, H., Liu, Y., Li, Y., Wu, C., Chen, B., Kraemer, M.U.G., Li, B., Cai, J., Xu, B., Yang, Q., Wang, B., Yang, P., Cui, Y., Song, Y., Zheng, P., Wang, Q., Bjornstad, O. T., Yang , R., Grenfell, T., Pybus, O. G., & Tian, C. D. (2020). An investigation of transmission control measures during the first 50 days of the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Science, 368,638 642(2020).DOI:10.1126/science.abb6105

    16. Wang, C.K., Hu, Z.F., & Liu, Y. (2001). Reliability and validity of general self-efficacy scale. Applied Psychology (01), 37-40. (in Chinese) doi: CNKI: SUN: YXNX.0. 2001-01-006.

    17. Wei, C.L., Chen, H., Wang, W., M, L., & Yang, T. (2014). A Correlation Study among General Self-Efficacy, Self-Consistency and Congruence and Coping Styles in College Students. Advances in Psychology, 4(7), pp. 889-895.Bandura, 1992

    18. Wu, J.J., Liao, Q.L., & Han, L.G. (2019). Research on the effective model of mental health education in colleges and universities under the background of positive psychology. Heilongjiang Higher Education Research (03), 113-117. (in Chinese) doi: CNKI: SUN: HLJG.0. 2019-03-024.

    19. Yin, K.L., & He, J.M. (2012). Reliability and validity of short version of mental health continuous volume scale (adult version). Chinese Journal of Mental Health (05), 388-392.

    20. Zhang, X.Y. (2018). Research on the Undergraduate Mental Health Education in Positive Psychology Horizon (Master Thesis, Bohai University). https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx? Dbname=CMFD201802 & filename=1018127716.

    21. Zhou, X.H., & Wu, Q. (2021). Study the relationship between college students' sense of life meaning, perceived social support and resilience. Occupation and Health (20), 2826-2830. doi: 10.13329/j.cnki.zyyjk.2021.0665.