STUDENTS’ COPYING STRATEGIES WITH COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN TANZANIA: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY OF UNIVERSITIES IN MOROGORO MUNICIPALITY

Abstract

Globally, COVID 19 caused closure of all educational institutions to control the spread of this pandemic. The spread of the disease has caused various emotional and mental distortions of university students. Thus, this study aims to establish students’ coping strategies used to cope with COVID-19 pandemic. The cross-sectional study was conducted among four (4) universities where 389 valid respondents out of 400 sampled students out of 3200 final year students in the faculty of social science and humanities through stratified random sampling technique within Morogoro Municipality in Tanzania. The study used structured questionnaires and interview guide to obtain data. The study used multiple linear regressions and content analysis to analyse the collected data. The findings of the study indicated that seeking for social support and social distancing were significantly and positively related to students coping strategies with COVID-19 in Tanzania’s universities. Also, students copying strategies contributed about 79.1% of all initiatives of copying with COVID 19, while 20.1% is contributed by other copying strategies which were not part of this study. The study concluded that, COVID 19 pandemic has an adversative effect on the health of university students and their studying environments. In this vein, the study recommends that, students should be encouraged to maintain social distancing among each other, wash hands with running water, do physical exercises, and get social support so as to reduce anxiety and the spread of COVID-19 pandemic within universities.

Keywords

• copying strategies
• students
• tanzania universities
• mixed method design
• regression analysis