Abstract/
Kew words

Relationship with well-being and personal characteristics

Introduction:

The COVID-19 pandemic has been presented as a health, humanitarian, and economic crisis with long-term impacts on young people. The Objective of this project was: To evaluate the perceptions and experiences of university students in Colombia regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and its relationship with well-being, sociodemographic variables, and personal characteristics. 

Methodology:

This is a descriptive and correlational study linked to an ongoing international project. To obtain the information, a questionnaire was developed that integrated all the questions and instruments and was applied online. The psychometric properties of the instruments that had not been validated in Colombia were studied. The non-probabilistic sample of 1,133 Colombian university students, average age 22.4 years (SD = 4.89, minimum 18, maximum 57), predominantly women, urban origin, medium and low socioeconomic levels, people from Magdalena and Sucre departments, and people who were studying only virtually when the information was obtained. 

Results:

Students with high compliance with behavioral self-care measures (CAM), those who had been vaccinated, favorable attitudes toward vaccines, and moderate and high levels of fear of covid-19 predominated, despite the predominance of young people who perceived their risk for Covid to be low. Predictive variables of compliance were identified as follows: self-assessment of knowledge, importance given to the CAM (especially hygiene measures), fear of COVID-19, and not having been infected with COVID-19. Students with low well-being predominated. Individual personal characteristics were the variables with predictive power for well-being, specifically extroversion, emotional stability, responsibility, resilient coping, and optimism, which significantly predicted both the hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions. Socioeconomic level predicted hedonic well-being outcomes but not eudaimonic well-being, which was associated with compliance with self-care measures.

Our results coincide with those reported in the international literature. They are relevant to guide communication actions for Colombian university students in situations of health threats that can be controlled with CAM, as well as for the design of actions to promote well-being for this population.