Different strategies were followed to control the spread of the COVID-19 disease worldwide. Jordan declared a military-enforced curfew for three months, which successfully controlled the disease spreading. However, the curfew impacted several aspects of students' lives and personalities. This study discusses the impact of the COVID-19 curfew restrictions on university students' mental health, as this area was not fully discussed in previous studies. An online survey was distributed to cover the psychological symptoms and coping strategies of university students. Most of them experienced short temper, anxiety, and sleep problems. Female students expressed more psychological symptoms than males, they managed their stress by sleeping, studying, and worshiping. Whereas male students were working, exercising, and playing video games. A distinct interest was noticed among students of different ages. Young students (18-25 years) expressed unhappiness and distress-like symptoms; they advocated sleeping and playing video games. While elder students (>26 years) had anxiety, sleep problems, and short tempers, they managed their symptoms by studying, exercising, and worshiping. The curfew restrictions have negatively impacted the mental health of female and younger students more than other categories. These research outcomes will help decision-makers to implement healthy coping strategies to be followed during unusual conditions.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-01833-1.
Keywords: COVID-19; Curfew; Jordan; Mental health; University students.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021.