AUTHOR=Yong Minglee , Suh Hanna TITLE=University Students Adjusting to COVID-19 Stressors: Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses of the COVID-19 Stressors Questionnaire JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816961 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816961 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

The psychological effects of COVID-19 have been documented in the past year, but scarce literature exists on the nature of COVID-19 stressors. Using a random split sample of 1199 young adult university students, results of exploratory factor analyses (EFA) identified a four-factor structure in the COVID-19 Stressors Questionnaire (C19SQ), which were labeled Resource Constraints, Social Restrictions, Future Uncertainty, and Health Concerns. This model was supported by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) when run on the other split sample of 1139 university students. Higher levels of COVID-19 stress were positively associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms and negatively associated with sleep duration, sleep quality, and the number of exercise days. COVID-19 stress also uniquely predicted poor university adjustment. This study demonstrated the link between COVID-19 stressors and mental and physical health symptoms, thus providing support for conceptualizing the psychological impact of the pandemic as adjustment problems for some individuals.