Abstract:
The study examined the direct and indirect relationships between fear of COVID-19 (FC), perceived academic stress
(PAS), future anxiety (FA), and psychological distress (PD) among students in Ghana. Students (n = 241; female = 64.1%;
mean age = 21.54 years, SD = 2.04 years) completed online surveys on fear of COVID-19, perceived academic stress,
future anxiety, and psychological distress. Following mediation analysis performed in PROCESS, results revealed that
academic stress and future anxiety independently and serially mediated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and
psychological distress. Independently, PAS mediated the relationship between FC and PD, and FA similarly mediated this
relationship. Considered together, the effect of FC on PD initially occurred through PAS, and then FA. We conclude that
high psychological distress is associated with increased fear of COVID-19, perceived academic stress, and future anxiety
of Ghanaian university students.
