Analysis of the Relationship among College Students’ Coping Strategies, Psychological Resilience, and Anxiety During COVID-19

This study aims to use a grounded theory approach to explore the relationship among coping strategies, psychological resilience, and anxiety for college students during the COVID-19. The investigators conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight college students in Wuhan city who reported negative emotions, such as tension, anxiety, and depression during the COVID-19 outbreak. MAXQDA 2020 was used to store, transcribe, code, and analyze the data. An open coding process generalized thirty- eight concepts and nine categories such as "self-regulation," "threat to Survival," and "positive emotions." Three core themes have emerged through axial and selective coding, and a theoretical framework was constructed. The theory that emerged from participants’ experiences demonstrates that a) most college students chose positive coping strategies to relieve their anxiety, b) different causes of anxiety may lead to different types of coping strategies, and c) college students’ psychological resilience is related to positive coping strategies during the COVID-19 epidemic.