COVID-19 Pandemic Impact On International Students’ Mental Health

The COVID-19 Pandemic is a worldwide financial and health calamity beyond anything seen in over a century.COVID-19 is extremely infectious,and the disease’s transmission dynamics are connected to its cross-continental spread.In order to prevent the coronavirus spread,the adoption of protective measures like social distance,stay-at-home instructions,and online learning has a negative outcome on students’ mental health,such as increased loneliness,anxiety,and despair.The present research aimed to determine the relationship of the COVID-19 Pandemic impact on international students’ mental health(anxiety,obsession,fear of COVID-19,reassurance-seeking,and coping strategies).To find out the predictive relationship of the COVID-19 Pandemic impact on international students’ mental health(anxiety,obsession,fear of COVID-19,reassurance-seeking,and coping strategies).Research also investigated age,gender,education,financial and district-level differences in the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on mental health(anxiety,obsession,fear of COVID-19,reassurance-seeking,and coping strategies)of international students.Moreover,international students’ mediating role of coping strategies among coronavirus impact scale and mental health(anxiety,obsession,fear of COVID-19,reassurance-seeking,and coping strategies)was also explored during the research.A mixed-method research design was employed,and the researcher used purposive and snowball sampling strategies to collect data.For the qualitative part,the data was collected from five(four male and one female)key informants(n=5),five(four male and one female)focus groups’ discussions,and five male and five in-depth female interviews(n=10)were conduct.For the quantitative part,the data has been collected from 320 international students through self-administered questioners(n=240 men,n=80 women).The researcher collected the sample from various universities in Lanzhou city of P.R.China.It was a multistage research project.During the first stage,key informants’ interviews,focus group discussions,and in-depth interviews were conducted.Thematic analysis was used to extract the relevant themes and subthemes.Qualitative analysis revealed that COVID-19 Pandemic has a significant impact on international students’ mental health.The qualitative study results demonstrated that students’ life before the COVID-19 Pandemic was very peaceful,satisfied,and educational focused.They were learning about the Chinese language and culture and were flourishing in their educational career.However,with the onset of the coronavirus,all kinds of students’ activities were impacted.They were unable to go outside of their dormitory and faced problems even completing their mandatory educational fieldwork.The second stage of the study examined the relationship of the COVID-19 Pandemic impact on international students’ mental health(anxiety,obsession,fear of COVID-19,reassurance-seeking,and coping strategies).Pearson product moment correlation,t-test,one-way ANOVA,multiple regression,and SEM were conducted to test the hypothesis.Qualitative phase results demonstrate seven major themes that were extracted from interviews conducted with international students,’ i.e.,Life before the coronavirus Pandemic,impact of coronavirus,response to the COVID-19 Pandemic,problems faced by international students during the lockdown/quarantine,mental health issues due to COVID-19 Pandemic,coping mechanism against COVID-19 and self-protection measures.These themes were based on secondary themes like satisfaction and happiness,education-focused,cross-cultural learning,socialization,mobility,anxiety,stress and fear,homesickness,decreased socialization,adopting positive and healthy distraction techniques,and following strict COVID-19 Pandemic protocol.Furthermore,quantitative research results indicated that COVID-19 impact significantly positively correlated and predicted mental health(anxiety,obsession,fear of COVID-19,reassurance-seeking,and coping strategies)of international students.Similarly,significant age,gender,education,financial,marital status,and district level difference was found in the impact of COVID-19 on mental health(anxiety,obsession,fear of COVID-19,reassurance-seeking,and coping strategies)of international students.Furthermore,problem-focused,emotional-focused,and disruptive behavior strategies fully mediated the relationship among coronavirus impact scale and symptoms of anxiety,fear of COVID-19,obsession,reassurance-seeking,and coping strategies.The findings of the study will be helpful in creating awareness among educational institutes and local communities regarding the scientific-based information about the COVID-19 Pandemic’s impact on the psychological health of international students.