TY - JOUR
T1 - Does Fear of COVID-19 Prolongation Lead to Future Career Anxiety Among Adolescents? The Mediating Role of Depressive Symptoms
AU - Shindi, Yousef Abu
AU - Emam, Mahmoud Mohamed
AU - Farhadi, Hadi
N1 - © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
PY - 2023/9
Y1 - 2023/9
N2 - UNLABELLED: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the lives of individuals from all different age groups. In particular, the prolongation of COVID-19 and the emergence of virus variants, such as Omicron, Delta and Alpha, have caused trauma to university students amid expectations that the associated economic, social, and psychological outcomes could affect their future careers. The current study, therefore, examines how the fear of COVID-19 prolongation may affect future career anxiety (FCA) among adolescents and to what extent depressive symptoms may determine such a relationship. Using a cross-sectional design, a survey was conducted to assess depressive symptoms, FCA, and fear of COVID-19 prolongation among 605 university students in Oman, an Arabic-speaking country located in the Gulf region. Using structural equation modeling, the results showed that there were significant standardized direct effects (unmediated) of fear of COVID-19 on depression from COVID-19 and of depression from COVID-19 on FCA. Additionally, depression from COVID-19 mediated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and FCA. The results are discussed within the Omani context of mental health service accessibility challenges and the dominant culture of perceiving mental health services with social stigma.SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-022-00506-w.
AB - UNLABELLED: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the lives of individuals from all different age groups. In particular, the prolongation of COVID-19 and the emergence of virus variants, such as Omicron, Delta and Alpha, have caused trauma to university students amid expectations that the associated economic, social, and psychological outcomes could affect their future careers. The current study, therefore, examines how the fear of COVID-19 prolongation may affect future career anxiety (FCA) among adolescents and to what extent depressive symptoms may determine such a relationship. Using a cross-sectional design, a survey was conducted to assess depressive symptoms, FCA, and fear of COVID-19 prolongation among 605 university students in Oman, an Arabic-speaking country located in the Gulf region. Using structural equation modeling, the results showed that there were significant standardized direct effects (unmediated) of fear of COVID-19 on depression from COVID-19 and of depression from COVID-19 on FCA. Additionally, depression from COVID-19 mediated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and FCA. The results are discussed within the Omani context of mental health service accessibility challenges and the dominant culture of perceiving mental health services with social stigma.SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-022-00506-w.
KW - Adolescents
KW - COVID-19 variants
KW - Career Anxiety
KW - Depressive Symptoms
KW - Fear
KW - Oman
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143524712&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85143524712&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/19b784c8-488d-30ff-9937-b77eae455722/
U2 - 10.1007/s40653-022-00506-w
DO - 10.1007/s40653-022-00506-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 36532139
AN - SCOPUS:85143524712
SN - 1936-1521
VL - 16
SP - 527
EP - 536
JO - Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma
JF - Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma
IS - 3
ER -
