Fear of COVID-19 and academic stress among Palestinian university students during the pandemic: the mediating role of mental health

The widespread Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted life for students and institutions worldwide. Such impacts may have affected the students' academic performance and mental health. In the current study, we aimed to explore the mediating role of mental health between fear of COVID-19 and academic stress among Gaza's university students during the COVID-19 outbreak. The sample consisted of 315 participants, of which 230 (73%) were females. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, Symptoms Checklist-10 and Academic Stress Scale were used. Fear of COVID-19 was found to be significantly positively correlated with depression, anxiety, stress and academic stress. Also, mental health was found to play a mediating role between fear of COVID-19 and academic stress.