In this study, we aimed to assess the university student’s psycho-emotional changes through investigating their level of depression and anxiety effects during panic [April-July, 2020] and post-panic [August-November, 2020] periods of COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. We found that university students experienced a higher percentage of depression and anxiety symptoms during both panic and post-panic periods. This high percentage of symptoms are comparable to some other studies conducted on the Bangladesh university student samples [8, 9, 12]. But, the students in post-panic period were experiencing comparatively higher depression symptoms than the panic period which is a significance of our study. During the panic period, students were with their families and did not feel much stress because they believed the situation was temporary and would be over soon. However, when the situation lasted longer, in post-panic period, many students' families faced financial difficulties due to job loss or lack of income, which had an indirect effect on students' mental health. Furthermore, many students manage their study costs through their own income in a normal situation, but due to the COVID-19 situation, they must stay with their family and have no opportunity for income. As a result of these factors, students became more depressed and anxious during the post-panic period [24, 25].
Our study found that older students were more likely to be depressed and anxious than their counterparts which is very comparable to other studies [8, 9]. A study conducted on Malaysian university students reported that older students were significantly more vulnerable to the risk of both depression and anxiety symptoms [26]. Getting a secure job in developing country is more competitive due to the limited job sectors. Generally, older students have a higher tendency of getting jobs and they prepare himself for competitive job exams from third or fourth years of their university life. The coronavirus pandemic is a big barrier of this issue as all the competitive job exams were postponed due to rapid spread of the virus. Moreover, many students had not taken part in the competitive job exams due to long time lockdown. Additionally, the maximum age requirement for joining government jobs sectors in Bangladesh is 30 years and the students are depressed and anxious about this issue as the countrywide long-time lockdown hampers them in joining the jobs. At the end of 2020 (post-panic period), the university students strike in several times for continuing incomplete exams as well as all academic activities so that they can apply for competitive job exams. Although the spread of COVID-19 infection in increasing, the students continued protests over deferred exams reported by a famous Bangladeshi newspaper Bangla Tribune [27]. These may be another important factor for increasing the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms during post-panic period.
Moreover, female students found significantly more depressed and anxious than the male and the result is comparable to other studies [9, 12, 14]. A study conducted by Shovo and the authors remarked that female university students are more likely to suffer depression and less prone to anxiety than male students [14]. However, the causes behind this outcome are still unknown. Additionally, we also found urban students experiencing more depression and anxiety symptoms than the rural students which is comparable to other studies conducted among university student [8, 9, 14, 28]. This may because of student’s self-consciousness about their career life. Generally, urban students are more conscious about their academic and job career life which resulted depression.
This cross-sectional study was conducted using a Google based questionnaire this may affect the results of our study. A nationally representative longitudinal study would help to overcome this limitation but are time expensive, consuming and quite difficult to undertake in Bangladeshi context. The study found post-panic period as the vulnerable to university student’s depression at 7% level of significant. The results could be more significant if there is possible to conduct the study with a sufficiently large sample. To assess the student’s depression and anxiety, we used two renowned questionnaire (PHQ-9 and GAD-7) that are mostly psychological. But, there have also many other pandemic related factors that are responsible for depression and anxiety of the university students of Bangladesh.