Perception of Vulnerability and Ruminant Thoughts about COVID-19 in Spanish Students

Abstract

The current situation in schools in relation to COVID-19 can generate a decrease in academic performance due to factors intrinsic to students. Therefore, rumination about COVID-19 could interfere with students’ attention, resulting in a decrease in their academic performance. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore the relationship between the perception of vulnerability to the disease and rumination about COVID-19 from a cross-sectional sample of post-compulsory education students. The differences in the perception of vulnerability to disease and rumination in different groups were analyzed, separated by gender. Our data suggest a positive relationship between the perception of vulnerability to the disease and ruminants’ thoughts about COVID-19 (r = 0.29). Gender differences are significant, with women having higher scores than men in both variables.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• rumination
• academic performance
• perceived vulnerability to disease