A Study to Assess the Level of Anxiety Associated with COVID-19 among High School Students.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on school children especially in their academic performance which may affect their mental health. The study aimed to assess the anxiety level of high school students. A cross sectional electronic study conducted among high school students in Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. A total of 302 high school students participated in the study. A two sectioned self-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS 16.0 version software. A chi-square test was used to investigate the level of anxiety among students and ANOVA test used to find the mean difference between groups, with significance set to P<0.05. Among 302 participants, 41.7% (n=126) were male, 58.3% (n=176) were aged 13-17 years. The study indicated that majority 132 (43.7%) of study participants reported that they had Mild anxiety which was followed by 77 (25.5%) no anxiety and 62 (20.5%) moderate anxiety. Factors such as age, gender, family members tested positive or being quarantined were having association with anxiety level. The researcher concluded that the high school children are experiencing a considerable level of anxiety during lock down of COVID-19 pandemic period. There was a strong association of anxiety level of students, if any family members are tested positive for corona virus or any one is being quarantined for the symptoms of corona virus.

Keywords:

Anxiety, High school students COVID-19, Corona Virus,

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