Mental Health Continuum as a Moderator to the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and Psychological Distress

Abstract

The Philippines is one of the nations where people's livelihoods have been impacted because of the pandemic. Particularly for the young people who are struggling on education because of the online setup, undeniably their physical, mental, and emotional health is significantly affected to a greater or lesser extent even beyond the country. While it is true that the impact of the pandemic is directly related to the psychological distress of these students, the concept of the mental health continuum can alleviate this relationship. The fundamental goal of this study is to find out how the mental health continuum's moderation influences COVID-19 pandemic's impacts and psychological distress.

To determine this, the researchers will employ a quantitative research design with a population of students at the university in San Pablo City, Laguna, as well as quota sampling of at least 60 students.

As a result, the impact and depression levels of the respondents yielded significant result with a p-value of 0.003, whereas the relationships between anxiety and stress yielded an insignificant result with p-values of 0.13 and 0.094. This study contains the study's provided perspective on the students' current mental health concerns. In moderate, from mild to severe levels of depression, anxiety, and stress are correspondingly alarming.