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Associations between mental health, social cognition, and COVID-19 stress among South African university students
The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to widespread psychosocial distress, observed in the unprecedented rise in symptoms of common mental disorders (CMDs), including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This surge in mental health complications has been reported across all...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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Department of Psychology
2025
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| _version_ | 1867614373959172096 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Mlomo, Zintle W |
| author2 | Thomas, Kevin |
| author_browse | Mlomo, Zintle W Thomas, Kevin |
| author_facet | Thomas, Kevin Mlomo, Zintle W |
| author_sort | Mlomo, Zintle W |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to widespread psychosocial distress, observed in the unprecedented rise in symptoms of common mental disorders (CMDs), including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This surge in mental health complications has been reported across all populations globally, most notably among university students, who are already a vulnerable cohort to CMDs, including PTSD. As integral socio-cognitive mechanisms of emotional regulation and interpersonal functioning, cognitive and affective empathy may potentially protect against or aggravate symptoms of CMDs, including PTSD, respectively. However, there is a scarcity of South African literature exploring this relationship, and relatively few South African studies have investigated students' mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study employed a descriptive, cross-sectional design and aimed at evaluating the relationship between sociodemographic variables, pandemic-related-stress and exposure, mental health and cognitive and affective empathy, and explore the potentially moderating role of empathy. 534 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of Cape Town (UCT) were recruited using convenience sampling to participate in an online survey. Participants were administered a brief demographic questionnaire, the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K 10), the Beck Depression Inventory-Second edition (BDI-II), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), PTSD-Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), the Pandemic Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Overall, the results showed that female biological sex, self-reported history of psychological diagnosis, and earlier year of study were significant sociodemographic predictors of higher symptoms of CMDs, including PTSD. Furthermore, the results showed positive associations between mental health outcomes and affective empathy, and further provided significant evidence of the potentially moderating role of affective and cognitive empathy in the relationship between pandemic-related stress and exposure and mental health outcomes. These findings contribute to the current research gap on empathy and mental health in South Africa and provide further insight into the role of cognitive and affective empathy in relation to mental health in the context of stressful environmental factors. Further research should be conducted to explore additional factors and mechanisms that could explain individual mental health and social cognition in relation to stressful environmental factors |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41757 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:51:01.396Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Department of Psychology |
| publisherStr | Department of Psychology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41757 Associations between mental health, social cognition, and COVID-19 stress among South African university students Mlomo, Zintle W Thomas, Kevin Pileggi, Lea-Ann COVID-19 pandemic psychosocial distress common mental disorders CMDs depression anxiety post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD South African university students The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to widespread psychosocial distress, observed in the unprecedented rise in symptoms of common mental disorders (CMDs), including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This surge in mental health complications has been reported across all populations globally, most notably among university students, who are already a vulnerable cohort to CMDs, including PTSD. As integral socio-cognitive mechanisms of emotional regulation and interpersonal functioning, cognitive and affective empathy may potentially protect against or aggravate symptoms of CMDs, including PTSD, respectively. However, there is a scarcity of South African literature exploring this relationship, and relatively few South African studies have investigated students' mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study employed a descriptive, cross-sectional design and aimed at evaluating the relationship between sociodemographic variables, pandemic-related-stress and exposure, mental health and cognitive and affective empathy, and explore the potentially moderating role of empathy. 534 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of Cape Town (UCT) were recruited using convenience sampling to participate in an online survey. Participants were administered a brief demographic questionnaire, the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K 10), the Beck Depression Inventory-Second edition (BDI-II), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), PTSD-Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), the Pandemic Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Overall, the results showed that female biological sex, self-reported history of psychological diagnosis, and earlier year of study were significant sociodemographic predictors of higher symptoms of CMDs, including PTSD. Furthermore, the results showed positive associations between mental health outcomes and affective empathy, and further provided significant evidence of the potentially moderating role of affective and cognitive empathy in the relationship between pandemic-related stress and exposure and mental health outcomes. These findings contribute to the current research gap on empathy and mental health in South Africa and provide further insight into the role of cognitive and affective empathy in relation to mental health in the context of stressful environmental factors. Further research should be conducted to explore additional factors and mechanisms that could explain individual mental health and social cognition in relation to stressful environmental factors 2025-09-10T14:04:05Z 2025-09-10T14:04:05Z 2025 2025-09-10T13:35:43Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41757 en eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | COVID-19 pandemic psychosocial distress common mental disorders CMDs depression anxiety post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD South African university students Mlomo, Zintle W Associations between mental health, social cognition, and COVID-19 stress among South African university students |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Associations between mental health, social cognition, and COVID-19 stress among South African university students |
| title_full | Associations between mental health, social cognition, and COVID-19 stress among South African university students |
| title_fullStr | Associations between mental health, social cognition, and COVID-19 stress among South African university students |
| title_full_unstemmed | Associations between mental health, social cognition, and COVID-19 stress among South African university students |
| title_short | Associations between mental health, social cognition, and COVID-19 stress among South African university students |
| title_sort | associations between mental health social cognition and covid 19 stress among south african university students |
| topic | COVID-19 pandemic psychosocial distress common mental disorders CMDs depression anxiety post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD South African university students |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41757 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mlomozintlew associationsbetweenmentalhealthsocialcognitionandcovid19stressamongsouthafricanuniversitystudents |