Participants and Procedures

This study was conducted at a polytechnic college in Guangdong Province, China, that has 13 teaching units, 44 undergraduate majors and more than 20,000 students, which was formally conducted between April 10 and June 15, 2020. A total of 918 persons completed the study questionnaire, of which 881 responses were valid. Among the respondents, 317 (36.0%) were male and 564 (64.0%) were female, all of whom were from the same grade.

The value of our research was confirmed when, prior to data collection, we learned from interviews that during the COVID-19 pandemic, respondents experienced varying degrees of depression. Many interviewees said that the progress of the pandemic had made them feel uneasy and that their studies and lives had been greatly affected.