Covid-19 fallout: Interplay between stressors and support on academic functioning of Malaysian university students

Abstract

Covid-19 has impacted the lives of everyone around the world, including university students. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on all economies, resulting in a huge loss of employment. As a result, university students are anxious about their job prospects upon graduation. The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of two stressors – employment anxiety and financial anxiety and two supports - university support and lecturer support on dropout intention and academic performance on university students with well-being and purpose in life being the mediators. This quantitative was carried out in Malaysia using 436 final-year undergraduate students. The full mediation model indicated that the university and lecturer support mitigates the two stressors' effects through well-being and purpose in life. Students who reported better support systems reported lower academic concerns and were less likely to drop out than those who reported less support from their university and lectures. The significance of this study and its implications are discussed, along with the findings.