Fear of COVID-19, perceived academic stress, future anxiety, and psychological distress of Ghanaian university students: A serial mediation examination
Date
2022
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Psychology in Africa
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.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
fear of covid-19, future anxiety, Ghana, perceived academic stress, psychological distress, university students
Citation
To cite this article: Nutifafa Eugene Yaw Dey, Mabel Oti-Boadi, Esther Malm, Roberta Kekle Selormey & Kenneth Owusu Ansah (2022) Fear of COVID-19, perceived academic stress, future anxiety, and psychological distress of Ghanaian university students: A serial mediation examination, Journal of Psychology in Africa, 32:5, 423-430, DOI: 10.1080/14330237.2022.2120703