mental health

A global survey by the Financial Times (FT)5, to which more than 800 15-30-year-olds in 16 countries responded, shows that the difficulties related to the pandemic are translating into growing resentment towards older generations, which are both better off and hold greater political sway.

Many surveyed by the FT said they were afraid of catching or transmitting the virus, but others admitted to a more nonchalant attitude —behaviour that has been criticized by political leaders as one reason for a resurgence of the pandemic in Europe and the US after the summer. Respondents’ sense that the pandemic was out of control was highest in Spain, the US and the UK.

Hong Kong

A smaller survey, conducted in 2020 by researchers at the University of Hong Kong, also assessed international students’ mental health in the pandemic. Interestingly, it distinguished between overseas students who stayed in their host country when Covid hit and those who returned home to Hong Kong.

Ø 84% faced “moderate-to-high” levels of stress

Students who remained in their host country had significantly higher stress including health and lack of social support, higher perceived stress and more severe insomnia. Researchers noted that the quickly changing, sometimes contradictory, often alarming messages that all students were subject to during the first months of the pandemic would have been particularly distressing for international students far from home. These complications would have been on top of the acute universal worry that everyone had about contracting Covid.

Sources

• frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.584240/full

• monitor.icef.com/2021/03/survey-finds-majority-of-students-struggling-with-mental-health-during-covid/

Source ft.com/content/0dec0291-2f72-4ce9-bd9f-ae2356bd869e

1. insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/01/global-student-survey-focuses-mental-health-and-financial-and-other-pressures

2. huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/kids-mental-health-covid-study_l_611132c4e4b075592c7ebcc5

3. monitor.icef.com/2021/02/how-the-pandemic-is-shaping-the-expectations-and-decisions-of-international-students/

4. theguardian.com/global-development/2021/sep/06/lost-generation-education-in-quarter-of-countries-at-risk-of-collapse-study-warn

5. ft.com/content/0dec0291-2f72-4ce9-bd9f-ae2356bd869e