Perceived Stress as Predictors of Depressive Symptoms among PUP Academic Scholars during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease has resulted to people’s feeling of stress and depressive symptoms.  This study aims to identify how perceived stress in the current epochal crisis can yield to depressive symptom among PUP Academic Scholars. Specifically, it seeks to describe the stress level of the respondents, describe the severity of depression symptoms they manifest, and lastly, determine significant relationship between the stress level and depressive symptoms of the respondents. The study employed quantitative correlational method. Students came from Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and they were selected through simple random sampling. Tools in the study include the Perceived Stress Scale for assessing the respondents’ level of perceived scale and the Beck Depression Inventory-II for assessing their depressive symptoms.  Based on the results, the perceived stress level of the respondents has a mean of 28.80 and a standard deviation of 5.99 which is considered as High Level, while the level of depressive symptoms has a mean of 23.57 and a standard deviation of 11.39 which is considered as moderate. The Pearson Product Moment Coefficient Correlation was employed to determine the relationship between perceived stress and depressive symptoms. The study found that there is a significant positive relationship between perceived stress and depressive symptoms with .05 level of significance in a 2-tailed test. This means that as the perceived stress increases, the depressive symptom increases as well, which is a systematic direct relationship. In the end, recommendations are directed toward the university administration intervention programs and the PUP academic scholars for proactive responses.