COVID 19 Fear, Stress, Anxiety, and Substance Use Among Russian and Belarusian University Students

Abstract

Coronavirus was first detected in November 2019 (Chan et al. 2020). The infection spread quickly in Wuhan (the capital of the Chinese province of Hubei) and then throughout China and other countries including the Russian Federation (RF) and Republic of Belarus (RB). In early May, more than 190,000 Russians and 20,168 Belarusian were infected (Johns Hopkins University 2020).Russia and Belarus were part of the former Soviet Union and have a similar culture-a single written language and common religion; also, there are close economic and political relations. However, Russia and Belarus have chosen different strategies in fighting COVID-19.Russia has taken a path similar to most European countries-strict quarantine (self-isolation), movement restriction, social distancing, mandatory use of personal protective equipment including masks and gloves, public event bans, as well as border and air traffic closures. In comparison, Belarus has not endorsed quarantine and has proceeded with "life as usual" without closing borders, businesses, restaurants, museums, cinemas, schools, or universities. It has imposed a 2-week quarantine of Belarusian citizens who came from countries with the coronavirus epidemic.Pandemic-related conditions are linked to negative economic consequences effecting living conditions at all levels (Atkeson 2020;Baker et al. 2020) and increased mental health incidents. Evidence about the psychological impact of coronavirus points to conditions of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicide (Galea et al. 2020;Sorokin et al. 2020; Wan 2020) as well as confusion, anger, fear, boredom, stigma, and stress over the loss of

COVID-19 Impact on Kazakhstan University Student Fear, Mental Health, and Substance Use

“…The methods used for this study of Kazakh students are similar to those developed to determine COVID-19 impact on Russian and Belarussian university students (Gritsenko et al 2020). The Qualtrics software platform was used for this online survey.…”

“…The present study builds on COVID-19-related research conducted in former USSR countries during the first wave of infection in April and May 2020. Such efforts include validation of a survey research tool in Russian language for Russian-speaking university students (Gritsenko et al 2020;Reznik et al 2020). Also, a comparative study was conducted across universities in the former Soviet Union-particularly Russia and Belarus that are very close in culture, religion, and language but have different strategies to combat COVID-19.…”

Academic caring pedagogy, presence, and Communitas in nursing education during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Strong academic leadership, faculty presence, and flexible policies are paramount as a result of COVID-19. Physical separation and social distancing, intertwined with new expectations of asynchronous remote learning, impact student psychological well-being and learning through heightened stress, fear, and anxiety ( Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2019 ; Gritsenko et al., 2020 ). Human caring has long been established as a central value in nursing education ( Tanner, 1990 ; Hills & Watson, 2011 , 2021 ) and can be considered an essential practice.…”

Tamil version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale

“…Fear of COVID-19 could worsen mental health and well-being (e.g. among university students, see Gritsenko et al 2020) or it could motivate individuals to comply with the recommended health measures (Harper et al 2020;Winter et al 2020). Ahorsu et al (2020) recently developed the Fear of which measures the severity of fear of COVID-19.…”