Table_2_Mental Well-Being in UK Higher Education During Covid-19: Do Students Trust Universities and the Government?.DOCX

This paper draws upon the concept of recreancy to examine the mental well-being of university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Briefly, recreancy is loss of societal trust that results when institutional actors can no longer be counted on to perform their responsibilities. Our study of mental well-being and recreancy focuses on the role of universities and government regulators within the education sector. We surveyed 600 UK students attending 161 different public higher education providers in October 2020 during a time when many UK students were isolated in their residences and engaged in online learning. We assessed student well-being using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (scored 7–35) and found the mean score to be 19.9 [95% confidence interval (CI) 19.6, 20.2]. This level of well-being indicates that a significant proportion of UK students face low levels of mental well-being. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicates that high recreancy—measured as a low trust in universities and the government—is associated with low levels of mental well-being across the student sample. While these findings are suggestive, they are also important and we suggest that government and university leaders should not only work to increase food and housing security during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also consider how to combat various sector trends that might intensify recreancy.

本文借鉴了再生性（recreancy）的概念，旨在探讨新冠疫情期间大学生的心理健康状况。简言之，再生性是指当制度行为者无法再被依赖履行其职责时，社会信任的丧失。本研究聚焦于心理健康与再生性，探讨大学和政府监管者在教育领域的作用。我们于2020年10月对161所不同公立高等教育机构的600名英国学生进行了调查，当时许多英国学生被隔离在宿舍中，并参与在线学习。我们采用简明沃里克-爱丁堡心理健康量表（评分范围为7-35）评估学生的心理健康，结果显示平均得分为19.9（95%置信区间（CI）为19.6至20.2）。这一心理健康水平表明，相当一部分英国学生面临着心理健康水平较低的问题。结构方程模型（SEM）分析表明，高再生性——即对大学和政府的低信任度——与学生样本中低心理健康水平相关。虽然这些发现具有启发意义，但它们同样具有重要意义。我们建议，政府及大学领导人不仅应致力于在新冠疫情期间增加食物和住房保障，还应考虑如何应对可能加剧再生性的各种行业趋势。