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Subjective wellbeing and its associated factors among community in a university during the covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia

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dc.contributor.authorDinsuhaimi, Syaheedatul Iman
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-21T23:52:48Z
dc.date.available2026-07-21T23:52:48Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.description.abstractIntroduction: COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people negatively psychosocially. The university community (staff and students) are among those who are vulnerable to psychological distress during the movement control order (MCO) due to disruption of routine. Wellbeing can be influenced by negative emotions in stressful events. This study aimed to examine the psychological status and subjective wellbeing of the university staff and students during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as factors associated with it. Methods: A cross-sectional online study, was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic from March until April 2020, involving 1148 staff and students of Universiti Sains Malaysia via voluntary response sampling. Questionnaires consisted of sociodemographic proforma and questions relating to COVID-19 and MCO. Depression, Anxiety and Stress 21 (DASS-21) and Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) were used to assess the psychological status and subjective wellbeing respectively. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the demographic characteristics. Multiple regression analysis was carried out to find the association between subjective wellbeing score with the sociodemographic data and DASS-21 scores. Result: Of the 1148 respondents, 27.4% reported to have moderate to very severe anxiety, compared to 18.4% and 11.5% for depression and stress of the same severity respectively. The mean (SD) subjective wellbeing score among the university community was 7.67 (1.38). Among the 8 domains of wellbeing, satisfaction with personal health was the highest (7.98). A relatively low level of satisfaction was found in the aspects of community relations, life achievement and future security with scores of 7.50, 7.49 and 7.44 respectively. Older age (b = 0.016, 95% CI 0.008 to 0.025) and being married (b = 0.189, 95% CI 0.018 to 0.359) were found to contribute to higher subjective wellbeing scores. Subjective wellbeing scores were lower among university staff (b = 0.206, 95% CI 0.390 to 0.022) than among students. Additionally, experiencing difficulties due to MCO (b = -0.363, 95% CI -0.496 to -0.231), as well as higher scores of depression (b = -0.046, 95% CI -0.062 to -0.030) and stress (b = -0.022, 95% CI -0.037 to -0.007) were found to significantly reduce subjective wellbeing scores. Conclusion: Difficulties due to MCO, depression and stress are negatively affecting towards the wellbeing of the university community, especially staff, during the pandemic. Psychosocial support should be emphasized to reduce the negative impact on the wellbeing of the university community that can affect the productivity of a university.
dc.identifier.urihttps://erepo.usm.my/handle/123456789/24752
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectSubjective wellbeing
dc.subjectCOVID-19
dc.titleSubjective wellbeing and its associated factors among community in a university during the covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia
dc.typeResource Types::text::thesis::master thesis
dspace.entity.typePublication
oairecerif.author.affiliationUniversiti Sains Malaysia
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