Open Access

ARTICLE

How Challenge Stress Affects Mental Health among College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy

by Yan Zeng^1,#, Shaoping Qiu^2,#,*, Amin Alizadeh³, Tiefang Liu⁴

1 The School of Literature and Communication, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou, 510665, China
2 The Department of Engineering Technology & Industrial Distribution, Texas A&M University, College Station, 77843, USA
3 The Department of Educational Administration & Human Resource Development, Texas A&M University, College Station, 77843, USA
4 The School of Educational Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China

* Corresponding Author: Shaoping Qiu. Email:
# The first two authors (Yan Zeng and Shaoping Qiu) contributed equally to this paper and should be considered co-first authors

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2021, 23(2), 167-175. https://doi.org/10.32604/IJMHP.2021.015937

Received 25 January 2021; Accepted 05 March 2021; Issue published 30 April 2021

Abstract

While a plethora of studies has been conducted to examine stress and its impact on mental health in western countries, research is scarce investigating the relationship between student challenge stress and health illness in the context of Chinese colleges. No studies examined the moderating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between challenge stress and health illness. This study attempted to investigate the relationships between these three variables among Chinese college students. Especially, this study focused on examining whether self-efficacy moderated the effect of perceived challenge stress on students’ mental health. Also, the differences were tested between male and female students in terms of these three variables. A sample of 578 Chinese college students was recruited over an approximately 12-week period from 7 Chinese universities. An online survey link was distributed through WeChat. The SPSS version 26 software was used to analyze the data. Results showed that there is no significant difference between genders in terms of perceived challenge stress, self-efficacy, and students’ mental health. In addition, challenge stress was positively related to the students’ mental health (β = 0.35, p < 0.01) while there was a negative association between self-efficacy and mental health (β = −0.41, p < 0.01). Furthermore, self-efficacy plays a moderating role in the relationship between challenge stress and mental health (β = −0.11, p = 0.02). Students with low self-efficacy tend to experience more mental health issues. It is suggested that Chinese colleges and universities pay more attention to students with low self-efficacy, either through faculty/staff interventions or peer counseling. Professors consider reducing students’ academic stress to improve their mental health.

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Keywords

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