Covid-19 Pandemic in the U.S.: College Students, Stress, and Yoga

Download or read book Covid-19 Pandemic in the U.S.: College Students, Stress, and Yoga written by Marie E. Brady and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic that first emerged in late 2019 has undoubtedly affected aspects of daily life and created mental health concerns during the last year and a half. College students tend to be particularly vulnerable to mental health concerns and stress in general, and yoga has been shown to be an effective tool for stress relief among students. Therefore, the current investigation was designed to determine the relationship between COVID related stress and yoga use among college students in the U.S. The current investigation was also designed to determine changes in yoga habits among college students during the pandemic. A total of 47 undergraduate and graduate students across the U.S. participated in an online survey consisting of a demographic assessment, yoga use surveys (pre-pandemic and current), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) surveys (pre-pandemic and current) and COVID Stress Scales (CSS). Current yoga use was weakly and insignificantly correlated with each of the subscales of the CSS (danger, socioeconomic consequences, contamination, traumatic, and compulsive). Yoga use did not significantly change among college students. Mean PSS scores increased from 18.11 to 21.55 during the pandemic. For eight of the PSS items, participants reported significant increases between January 2020 and current. Participants reported higher CSS scores for the danger subscale (M = 12.70, SD = 6.15), as compared to the other subscales. The socioeconomic consequences subscale had the lowest score (M = 4.96, SD = 4.90). Health promotion professionals may want to encourage college students to utilize more stress management techniques, such as yoga, both in daily life and in extreme, stressful situations such as a pandemic. Future research may focus on additional stress management techniques for college students, intervention yoga studies for different types of stress, objective measurements of stress before and after a yoga class, and whether the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine has decreased fear and stress among college students or the general population.