Responding to the COVID‐19 public health emergency: The usefulness of an online brief psychological intervention with Italian university students

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic has brought about new stressors on university students, with a negative impact on their mental health and well‐being. The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of a brief psychodynamically oriented intervention on general functioning by investigating changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and burnout. The sample was comprised of 67 university students (22.4% males), with a mean age of 23.27 (standard deviation (SD) = 3.27), who asked for psychological help at a psychological university service. Pre‐ and posttreatment data showed a significant improvement in general functioning and symptom reduction due to the psychological intervention. The mean change was very high for depression ( d = 1.11) and high for general functioning ( d = 0.70) and anxiety ( d = 0.69). Our findings showed the importance of considering university students a vulnerable population that requires specific services within the university context and underlined the fact that mental‐health‐promotion policies should be extensively implemented.

Psychodynamic university counseling: which factors predict psychological functioning after intervention?

“…First, our results revealed a decrease in the Symptom Distress (SD) dimension after the counseling intervention. The present findings are in line with numerous studies showing the effectiveness of university counseling services in reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms ( Østergård et al, 2017 ; Barnett et al, 2021 ; Cerutti et al, 2022 , 2023 ). Biasi et al (2017) , for example found, in a sample of students who had undergone counseling, not only a significant decrease in internalizing disorders such as anxiety and depression, but also a substantial improvement in all three dimensions of the OQ-45.…”

“…This may be explained by a more positive attitude toward psychological support and a greater tendency to seek it among women, relative to men ( Elhai et al, 2008 ; Nam et al, 2010 ). However, as also found by Cerutti et al (2023) , no sex- and age-related differences were found in our study in measuring the overall well-being of OQ-45 total scores.…”

“…A total score is generated from the sum of all item scores. Following Cerutti et al (2023) , the present study used the short version of the questionnaire, which is comprised of only one item for each component of hopelessness: cognitive (“Things just will not work out the way I want them to”), affective (“My future seems dark to me”), and motivational (“There’s no use in really trying to get something I want because I probably will not get it”). As highlighted by Perczel Forintos et al (2013) this version may be more useful in clinical settings.…”

Outcomes of Best-Practice Guided Digital Mental Health Interventions for Youth and Young Adults with Emerging Symptoms: Part I. A Systematic Review of Socioemotional Outcomes and Recommendations

“…If guided support was synchronous (n = 2; Cerutti et al, 2022;Harra & Vargas, 2023), we found reduced depression symptoms. If guided support was asynchronous (n = 12) or both synchronous and asynchronous (n = 9), results suggest mixed benefit in depressive outcomes.…”

Social distancing policy and mental health during COVID-19 pandemic: an 18-month longitudinal cohort study in South Korea

“…Studies with healthy Italian participants conducted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic also reported that participants’ depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms worsened compared to before the lockdown ( Mariani et al, 2020 , 2021 ). Another comparative study of Italian college students before and after COVID-19 found that clinical symptoms such as depressive, anxiety, and psychotic symptoms increased significantly after pandemic ( Cerutti et al, 2022 , 2023 ). Factors such as reduced social interaction, heightened loneliness, fears of disease transmission, and increased uncertainty have could lead to elevated levels of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress ( Fiorillo and Gorwood, 2020 ; Fountoulakis et al, 2021 ).…”