The Impact of Chinese College Students' Perceived Stress on Anxiety During the COVID-19 Epidemic : The Mediating Role of Irrational Beliefs

Chi ZHANG, Qian LIU*, Haihua LIU, Nuoxun LIN

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective: To explore the underlying mechanism of the impact of perceived stress on anxiety of the Chinese college students during the COVID-19 epidemic. 

Methods: The Perceived Stress Scale, Irrational Belief Scale, and General Anxiety Scale were adopted in the current study. College students were randomly selected for online questionnaire survey. There were 1,598 valid questionnaires, and the proportion of women was 47.81%. 

Results: The perceived stress and anxiety, as well as the three dimensions of irrational beliefs (catastrophizing, low frustration tolerance, and depreciation) were significantly positively correlated; demandingness was not significantly correlated with anxiety. Further analysis found that the perceived stress had a significant positive predictive effect on the anxiety of college students. Catastrophizing, low frustration tolerance, and depreciation played part of the mediating role, and there was no significant difference in the strength of these mediating roles. 

Conclusion: The perceived stress of the COVID-19 epidemic had a positive effect on the anxiety of Chinese college students, this was partly mediated by irrational beliefs.

Original languageEnglish
Article number731874
Number of pages6
JournalFrontiers in Psychiatry
Volume12
Early online dateSept 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Sept 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Chi, Qian, Haihua and Nuoxun.

Funding

This article was a phased achievement of the science popularization project of public health under the background of COVID-19 (2020JBWZ001) funded by the basic research expenses of Universities affiliated to the central government.

Keywords

  • anxiety
  • college students
  • COVID-19
  • irrational beliefs
  • perceived stress

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