Economic Distress Arising From Covid-19 Pandemic as a Factor in Development of Anxiety Symptoms among Undergraduate Students in Anambra State-Nigeria

The economic situation of a person or family is an important contributory factor to the individual’s health status, hence would likely contribute to the anxiety symptoms they experience, especially in an unforeseen pandemic situation currently being experienced in the world today. This study therefore examined economic distress arising from covid-19 pandemic as a factor in development of anxiety symptoms among undergraduate students in Anambra State, Nigeria. Five research questions guided the study while one null hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance. Correlational research design was used in carrying out the study. The population of the study comprised of 39,697 undergraduate students in Universities in Anambra State. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in the selection of 1,900 participants for this study. The instruments for data collection are questionnaires titled; “Distressing Economic Survey Questionnaire (PESQ)” and “Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)”. The reliability coefficients of the instruments were 0.93 for PESQ and 0.92 for BAI. Data was collected by sending the questionnaires along with the consent form appended to it through e-mails, WhatsApp and Telegram messengers to the contacts of the researchers and analyzed using Percentages, answering the research questions 1-3., Pearson r. for research questions 4-5 and regression analysis for testing the hypothesis. The findings of the study revealed among others that there is a low positive relationship of 0.24 existing between the housing condition of the university undergraduate students’ and the anxiety symptoms experienced. The findings also revealed that the undergraduate students’ living status and housing condition are significant predictors of their experience of anxiety symptoms in Anambra State. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that there is a serious need to have fully functional guidance counsellors in the university who are not combining counselling with lecturing. These guidance counsellors in the school will help to explore varieties of ways of coping with the distressing economic conditions to reduce feelings of anxiety and possibly handling the anxiety before it becomes a source of problem to the students.