Home⇛NRCP Research Journal⇛vol. 22 no. 1 (2023)

EFFECTS OF ONLINE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING PROGRAM ON COLLEGE STUDENTS' DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND STRESS MEAN SCORES: PRE-POST STUDY DESIGN

RESTI TITO H. VILLARINO

 

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the health and well-being of college students. However, limited studies were conducted on developing health and well- being programs to mitigate the negative health impacts among college students during the pandemic. Thus, this study assessed if there is a significant difference between the pre-post means in depression, anxiety, and stress levels among college students after an online health and well-program. The article reports a quantitative research conducted on 178 college students using a pretest-posttest design. The experimental group participated in an online health and wellness program for three months, while the control group resumed their activities of daily living. The DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale) was the primary research instrument. The first step consisted of collecting participant information, while the final phase consisted of post-evaluation. IBM SPSS Statistics 27 was utilized to evaluate the data. The results indicate that the experimental group’s pretest mean for depression (10.60,±5.67) got an interpretation of mild and decreased to normal in the posttest (9.33, ±6.52). The anxiety pretest mean (9.56,±6.17) was interpreted as mild and decreased to normal in the posttest (8.75,±6.99). The pretest stress mean (13.76,±5.72) decreased in the posttest (12.73,±7.20) with an overall interpretation of normal. Moreover, the control group’s depression pretest mean (10.16,±6.29) decreased to normal (9.84,±7.10) in the posttest. The anxiety pretest mean (9.53, ±6.87) and the posttest (9.27, ±7.00) also got an interpretation of mild. The stress means of the control in the pretest (14.26, ±7.03) decreased in the posttest (13.11, ±7.13) with an interpretation of normal. The pre-post mean of depression, anxiety, stress, and overall DASS 21 for both within and between groups were all insignificant using a two-tailed t-test. Moreover, Cohen’s d results for the experimental and control groups within and between groups indicate a small effect size. Our study provides no evidence of a significant difference between the pretest and posttest means for depression, anxiety, and stress among college students after the online health and well-being program. However, our depression, anxiety, and stress scales (DASS-21) findings served as the basis for screening depression, anxiety, and stress among the participants that might need immediate clinical intervention and referral. A larger sample size, inclusion of causal inferences, and longer study duration may be undertaken for future studies.



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