Assessing Students’ Stress During COVID-19 Lockdown: The COVID-19 Student Stress Questionnaire.

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, research is making intensive efforts to understand the psychological impact of the current outbreak and of the containment measures taken worldwide in the attempt to prevent and slow the spread of the virus. In this direction, specific tools were developed to evaluate the impact of this unique condition on people’ mental health. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies addressing specific sources of stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic and that consider potential specificities of different target populations when defining tools and interventions. Clinical observations suggest that during times of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown university students’ daily routine was subject to drastic modifications, and students exhibit stress-related responses not only to fear of contagion, but also to limitations of personal and relational life. Responding to the need to deepen the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic among university students, the study provides a brief, valid and reliable tool, namely the COVID-19 Student Stress Questionnaire (CSSQ). The CSSQ aims to assess specific sources of stress featuring the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown experiences among university students, and it has been developed and validated with 514 Italian university students. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted with one split-half sub-sample to investigate the underlining dimensional structure, suggesting a three-component solution, which was confirmed by the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with the second one split-half sub-sample (CFI = 0.95; TLI = 0.95; RMSEA = 0.06). The CSSQ three subscales measure COVID-19 students’ stressors related to (1) Relationships and Academic Life (i.e., relationships with relatives, colleagues, professors, and academic studying); (2) Isolation (i.e., social isolation and couple’s relationship, intimacy and sexual life); (3) Fear of Contagion. A Global Stress score was also provided. The questionnaire revealed a satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.71; McDonald’s omega = 0.71). Evidence was also provided for convergent and discriminant validity. The CSSQ provides researchers and practitioners with a brief, valid and reliable measure to assess perceived stress related to this unique global crisis among university students. Examples of research applications of the CSSQ will be presented to illustrate the main impact of specific COVID-19-related sources of stress on students’ psychological and physical health conditions and to describe potential significant mediating and moderating variables. In conclusion, the study sought to give a contribution to foster the development of evidence-based tailored interventions promoting students’ wellbeing during and after COVID-19 global crisis.