| dc.description.abstract | The study sought to establish the relationship between COVID-19-associated academic challenges, social support and stress among Makerere University students. The study was conducted at Makerere University Kampala where 170 students aged between 18 to 34 years were selected from different colleges of Makerere University using standardised self-administered questionnaires that were quantitative in nature. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) using the Pearson (r) Product Correlation Coefficient to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between COVID-19 associated academic challenges and stress.( r=0.186**, p=0.010 ). As well as there was no significant relationship between COVID-19 associated academic challenges and social support. (r=-0.54, p=0.456) However, there were different dimensions of soical support from society, friends and family whose sub correlations were; there was no significant positive relationship between COVID-19-associated academic challenges and societal social support (r = -1.72, p = 0.016), a significant positive relationship between COVID-19-associated academic challenges and family social support ( r = 0.20,p = 0.783>) and a significant positive relationship between COVID-19-associated academic challenges and friends social support (r = 0.010, p = 0.892) further more there was no significant relationship between social support and stress. (r=-0.113, p=0.117). The study unearthed that the COVID-19 academic challenges faced by students were not linked directly to the presence or absence of social supoort of these students from friends and family. These challenges were inherent and affected both socially supported students and the unsupported. We therefore recommended that academic institutuons should be more vigilant to alleviate such challenges in case of any future pandemics on an institutional level than leaving it alone for students to solve in form of social connectivity with friends and family that does not help. | en_US |
