Abstract:

Introduction:
The problem of mental health of the subjects of educational process has always been the center of attention of scientists, but recently it becomes currently important. One of the reasons of such situation is a great change in the conditions for the implementation of the educational process and the lack of data concerning the influence on its participants of unplanned transition of learning from full-time to distance form.
Despite of having so many benefits such form of learning, has significant disadvantages, especially in the sense of possible problems with physical and mental health. Today it is already known that during distance learning, the subjects of the educational process feel physical problems of health, but the problem of the impact of distance learning on mental health remains underexplored.

Purpose:
The purpose of the research is to study the impact of distance learning on mental health of cadets and students in higher education institutions of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) in conditions of uncertain duration and social isolation, depending on educational status of the respondent (cadet/student), age and sex.

Methodology:
150 applicants (76% – boys, 24% – girls) of the Cherkasy Institute of Fire Safety named after Chornobyl Heroes took part in the research. Among the respondents are 70 cadets and 80 students. The age range of respondents is 21,0 ± 1,4. For the psychodiagnostic examination the “State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)” and measure WHO5 – well-being index were used. To identify links between psychoemotional disorders and social factors, the author's inventory was used concerning the peculiarities of conducting educational activity and free time during lockdown. Inventories and questionnaires were filled by respondents 2 times: before lockdown (February 2020) and during lockdown (May 2020).

Results:
During distance learning 65,4% of cadets and 80,1% of students are dominated by moderate and high level of personal anxiety with a low level of reactive anxiety. Indicators of the level of anxiety and the index of general well-being of WHO5 do not depend on the age characteristics of respondents, but at the same time have a dependence on educational status, gender factors.
A moderate level of anxiety is dominated in cadets (70,3% – male and 60,2% – female), high level of anxiety – in students, especially marked in female (85,1%). It has been found out that time spent in front of computer during distance learning increased to 71% in cadets and to 83% in students. However the time spent outdoors has decreased on average by 17,2% of students and 15,5% of cadets.

Conclusions:
During distance learning a deterioration of mental health of applicants of higher education institutions of the SESU is noticed, especially in students. In the cadets there are also a decrease of the indicators of general well-being and an increase of level of anxiety, at the same time statistically (p≤0,05), in no case it is not confirmed. The statistical difference of the studied data in cadets and students, in our opinion, is due to professional selection for training of cadets. However the research lasted not a large period of time (March-May 2020); with further distance learning the breakdown of adaptive barrier of cadets, which negatively affects on their mental health and social skills, is possible.

Keywords:

Distance learning, mental health, educational process.