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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1461595

Depression, anxiety and help-seeking among Slovenian postsecondary students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Provisionally accepted
Špela Selak Špela Selak 1*Maša Lebar Maša Lebar 2Gregor Žvelc Gregor Žvelc 2Branko Gabrovec Branko Gabrovec 1Andrej Šorgo Andrej Šorgo 3Katarina Cesar Katarina Cesar 1Nuša Crnkovič Nuša Crnkovič 1
  • 1 National Institute of Public Health, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 3 Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has faced students with many challenges, contributing to their mental distress. This article explores the role of demographic characteristics, psychological status, year of study, and social support during the COVID-19 pandemic in explaining Slovenian university students' mental health problems and help-seeking behavior. Methods: In February and March 2021, data were collected on 5,234 full-time Slovenian postsecondary students who were enrolled in public and concessionary independent higher education institutions. Participants completed a questionnaire, which included The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), General Anxiety Disorder questionnaire (GAD-7), Oslo Social Support Scale (OSSS-3), and items measuring psychological status, help-seeking behavior and demographics. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression and hypothesis testing for differences. Results: Factors, such as gender, age, psychological status and social support, contributed to experiencing anxiety and depression among Slovenian students during the COVID-19 pandemic, with year of study additionally contributing to experiencing depression. Similarly, gender, age, psychological status and social support contributed to help-seeking behavior. Higher levels of depression and anxiety were reported by female students, students with prior mental disorders, and students with lower social support levels. Female students and students with lower social support levels reported more frequent help-seeking behaviors. Conclusions: The results provide insight into the mental state of the Slovenian student population in the context of imposed public health measures at the end of the second COVID-19 wave in Slovenia. The findings can help identify vulnerable groups within the student population to whom we must be particularly attentive in times of crisis.

    Keywords: Depression, Anxiety, Help-seeking, Students, COVID-19

    Received: 08 Jul 2024; Accepted: 28 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Selak, Lebar, Žvelc, Gabrovec, Šorgo, Cesar and Crnkovič. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Špela Selak, National Institute of Public Health, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.