An investigation by the Center for the Study of Living Conditions and Population Needs (ÉCOBES) at Cégep de Jonquière, in Saguenay, confirms that the mental health of CEGEP students in the province has greatly deteriorated since the start of the pandemic.
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The study entitled “Psychological adaptation and adaptation to studies of college students facing the COVID-19 crisis” was conducted among more than 8,500 CEGEP students.
Fifty-six percent of them experience greater psychological distress than last year, according to data collected last fall.
“The anxious aspects, surprises and excesses of the pandemic, I had assumed that it would decrease compared to the results obtained during the first phase of the investigation last May. The same goes for the impacts of teaching methods, ”admitted one of the researchers from the ÉCOBES group, Benjamin Gallais, who worked in collaboration on this survey with Marie-Ève Blackburn, Marco Gaudreault and Joanie Paré.
But the researcher was wrong since 41% of CEGEP students surveyed experience moderate to severe anxiety, compared to 25% last spring.
In addition, half of the students said they felt symptoms of significant depression, 17% more than in May.
“Precisely, it’s 49.9% [des cégépiens] who get a worrying score that would need to be evaluated by a specialist, said Gallais. People who weren’t well before are going through something even more difficult today. And there are young people who did not know the difficulties of mental health who, today, live them and, that is worrying. ”
Psychologist Julie Bouchard, who works at Cégep de Jonquière, promotes in-person consultations.
Unlike in the spring when the unknown was the main source of anxiety for students, today it is the lack of social contact that seems to pose more problems.
“Young people tell us that they are happy to see us and we also need it,” she assured, in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
She is not surprised to find that 76% of young people surveyed by ÉCOBES say they are bored of social life on campus.
ÉCOBES has not yet completed the full analysis of the data collected.
The final report will be sent to the Ministry of Higher Education, which is currently working on developing a mental health action plan.
The main researcher of the study, Benjamin Gallais, has also taken part, over the past few days, in a working meeting on the subject which brought together various stakeholders from the field.
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