Abstract:

Introduction:
In 2020 the university student suffered a home- confinement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This caused the students to face this new situation and lifestyle. They should learn to control their emotions as stress, anxiety, isolation, performance, as well as their university training. From the Student Orientation Plan of the University Center of Plasencia and the Group of Teaching Innovation called well-being University of Extremadura (GIDUBEX), transversal training on positive thinking and self-motivation were carried out through workshops specifically designed for this purpose.

Objetive:
The main objective of this work was to know how university students faced university training during confinement time frame as well as their emotional state along that time.

Methodology:
A total of 321 students (244 women and 77 men), with an average age of 21.49±4.93 years, from three different degrees (Nursing, Podiatry and Degree in Forest Engineering and the Natural Environment) and courses (first course: 106 students, second course: 131 students, third course: 40 students and fourth course: 44 students), were surveyed using Google Forms. Statistical treatment was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics software.

Results:
After analyzing the data, some of the main results of the study are that the tools most used among the students to ensure their well-being during confinement were social relationships and physical exercise. More than half of the students surveyed did not practice any relaxation techniques. However, it is the Health Sciences students who most used positive thinking and practiced relaxation techniques as coping strategies. Another relevant result shows that healthy eating is more practiced by students at the two last courses of their degrees (p-value<0.049).

Regarding the differences by gender, it is men who significantly tend to better assess their physical, mental and emotional state of health. Likewise, students of the Degree in Forest Engineering tend to better value their emotional health. Also noteworthy is the demand for greater training in emotional management, relaxation and positive thinking both to interact with their peers and to face academic work and exams. The students of Health Sciences, the women in general and, the students of the first course express their interest in these tools in a significantly higher percentage.

Conclusion:
The results of our study reflect the need to continue training the students in emotional management, relaxation and positive thinking, tools that arouse the interest of our students and that would have been very useful in the management of confinement, being currently necessary than ever to the cope with actual situation.

Keywords:

Exams, stress, students, positive thinking, motivation.