PERCEIVED FEAR OF COVID, CONTAMINATION SENSITIVITY, COPING STYLES AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

This study aims to assess the relationship between perceived fear of Covid, Contamination Sensitivity, Coping Styles and Psychological Distress among university students. It further intended to explore the predictors of psychological distress and investigate gender difference among the study variables in a study population. A Purposive sampling was used for data collection and a sample of (N=330) university students (155 males, 175 females, Mage=21.12, SD=2.12) participated from different colleges and universities of Lahore. The measures used in this study include Fear of Covid Scale, Contamination Sensitivity Scale, Brief-Cope Questionnaire, and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale(K10). The analysis included Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Hierarchical Linear Regression and PROCESS. The results revealed that there is significant relationship of Perceived Fear of Covid, Contamination Sensitivity, Coping Styles, and Psychological Distress. Further, Fear of Covid, Contamination Sensitivity, Coping Styles are significant predictors of Psychological Distress. Though, Moderation analysis was non-significant but Denial coping styles showed significant interaction effect on the relationship of Fear of Covid and Psychological Distress. Further t-test showed that among male and females and female scored higher psychological distress and fear of Covid than males.