ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented changes in people’s lives and more specifically to the life of many students around the world. This study aims to analyse the psychological distress related with the COVID-19 outbreak in students from CamEd business school. Common factors in psychological distress in students during the COVID-19 pandemic where analyzed in a literature review and used as focus to further understand psychological distress in this studies participants. Psychological distress and trauma symptoms related to the COVID-19 pandemic of 319 respondents where measured by the SRQ-20 and the IES-R. Scores on psychological distressed where compared between genders and the factors ‘amount of COVID-19 related media consumption’ and ‘levels of (self)-isolation’ where tested for correlation with psychological distress. This study found relatively high levels of distress and trauma related symptoms in this population. 51.4% of the participants reported levels of distress that brings them at risk for mental health disorders and 50.5% reported levels of trauma related symptoms bringing them at risk for PTSD. Further analysis showed that trauma related symptoms account for 36.7% of the variance in psychological distress. There was a significantly higher amount of psychological distress in females compared with males. The factors ‘amount of COVID-19 related media consumption’ and ‘levels of (self)- isolation’ did not show any correlation with psychological distress in this study. Limitations and implications of these findings are discussed. Factors in psychological distress for this specific population needs further research. General interventions and supportive measures for at risk students are discussed.

 Keywords: COVID-19, Psychological Distress, Students, factors on Psychological distress, Cambodia.