Abstract:

Introduction:
Due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, many universities have changed teaching methods from classroom to online. As a result, students' lives have changed in many ways, often with negative consequences. In fact, if the measures of social isolation have proved effective against the spread of the infection, at the same time they may have had negative effects on the students’ psychological well-being, especially on the most fragile ones (Sun et al. 2021).
There are several indications that suggest that negative consequences of isolation are not equal for man and women and that they may also be evident in relation to individuals with high levels of education, as in the case of female university students, living in economically evolved conditions such as those of Western countries (Elmer et al. 2020). Therefore, it seems reasonable to ask whether and to what extent, during the lockdown periods that occurred in Italy between March 2020 and June 2021, female university students experienced conditions of greater distress than male students, and if so, of what kind.

The study:
The study involved 492 students, attending universities all over Italy, who voluntarily completed a structured online questionnaire to obtain information on living conditions, study activities, well-being and perceived stress.

Results:
The participants were mostly females (73.1%). The mean age was 25.5 (SD 4.70), in a range between 19 and 55 years. The majority of the respondent were undergraduate students attending a Bachelor’s degree (41.5%), a Master’s degree (44.5%), or enrolled in a single cycle master’s degree (9.6%).

Technological equipment:
Female students reported significantly (p=0.041) less frequently (8.5%) to have a personal computer than males (2.2%).

Online training activities:
Female students spent significantly more hours on online training (p= 0.021, M = 4.67, F = 5.35) but in general the time spent studying was lower for female respondents (p=0.000). Moreover, female students attended online lessons less frequently (p=0.001).

Stress and mental well-being:
Female students had significantly higher level of perceived stress (PSS4) than males (M= 6.646, F=8.275, p=0.001), and significantly lower levels of well-being (WEMWBS) than males (M= 40.250, F=36.763, p=0.001).

Conclusion:
The results of our study paint a worrying picture. Several findings suggest that the distress caused by isolation during lockdown periods is alarming, and it is greater for female college students than their male counterparts. There are different reasons for this, and they require specific solutions.

References:
[1] Elmer T, Mepham K, Stadtfeld C (2020) Students under lockdown: Comparisons of students’ social networks and mental health before and during the COVID-19 crisis in Switzerland. PLoS ONE 15(7): e0236337. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236337
[2] Sun, S., Goldberg, S. B., Lin, D., Qiao S., & Operaio D. (2021) Psychiatric symptoms, risk, and protective factors among university students in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Global Health, 17, 15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-021-00663-x

Keywords:

Gender, university students, lockdown, stress, well-being.