Page 94 - GHES-3-2

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
How do college students who are parents feel

anxiety, stress, and depression during their
examination preparation?

Evangelos Demeroutis , Dimitris D. Vlastos 1,2 and Paraskevi Theofilou *
2
1
1 Department of Psychology, Scientific College of Greece, Athens, Greece
2 Laboratory of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Scientific College of Greece, Athens, Greece
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Real-World Data (RWD) for mental health and quality of
life)

Abstract
Anxiety, stress, and depression are elements of everyday life for some people.
Situations and choices such as attending higher education institutions make these
states even more difficult. Parallel employment and increased family obligations are
thought to burden the mental states of students. This study purposed to highlight
the increased levels of anxiety, stress, or depression experienced by college students
who are also parents. It also explored the sources of these adverse mental states and
Academic editor: probed how students with children tackled them. It was assumed that students who
Mihajlo Jakovljevic M.D. Ph.D. MAE
were parents would be more burdened by these mental states than other students.
*Corresponding author: The administered questionnaire was based on the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress
Paraskevi Theofilou
(ptheofilou@scg.edu.gr) Scale-21 (DASS-21) with added questions regarding the sources of anxiety, stress,
or depression and the ways participants dealt with them. However, the original
Citation: Demeroutis, E.,
Vlastos, D.D., & Theofilou, P. hypothesis was rejected because the data obtained from the study sample of 94
(2025). How do college students participants revealed that students without children experienced more anxiety than
who are parents feel anxiety, students who were parents. No difference was found in the stress and depression
stress, and depression during their
examination preparation?.Global levels reported by the two groups. Participants also highlighted how educational
Health Econ Sustain, 3(2):86-94. institutions can burden the mental state of students, for instance, through the number
https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.4906 of assigned tasks and the examination period. Participants reported that they turned
Submitted: September 22, 2024 to their family members and friends or stayed at home to reduce anxiety, stress, and
depression. Therefore, studies should be conducted to discover the probable reasons
Revised: October 29, 2024
for higher levels of anxiety, stress, or depression sensed by college students who are
Accepted: November 15, 2024 not parents and how students who are parents mitigate these states.
Published online: December 10,
2024
Keywords: Anxiety; Stress; Depression; Student; Parent; Emotional relaxation; Higher
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). education
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, 1. Introduction
provided the original work is
properly cited. Present-day work environments require candidates for most jobs to be appropriately
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Publishing remains neutral with their secondary education as well as those who have decided to change their work
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Volume 3 Issue 2 (2025) 86 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.4906