DOES HAPPINESS RHYME WITH UNIVERSITY? MENTAL HEALTH OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
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Abstract
This article presents the results of ongoing research. The research goal is to investigate the impact of a course called Happiness and Embodiment during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the first half of 2021. This course, offered by the Physical Education undergraduate course at the Federal University of Pampa - Campus Uruguaiana, aimed to promote the students' mental health. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, this objective became a need. This course was mainly composed of physical-contemplative exercises: such as Tai Chi Chuan, meditation, and mindfulness, to help students manage stress and anxiety at the most critical moment of the pandemic. For this, a documentary, longitudinal-retrospective and qualitative research was carried out, where the participants allowed access to the their evaluations and autobiographical reports produced during the course. Bardin's content analysis was used to verify the qualitative data. Psychometric data were presented through percentages and mean. Qualitative results were synthesized into 3 categories: C1 - Happiness; (ii) C2 - Academic education; (iii) C3 - Education of the Heart. The results of the psychometric tests indicated a decrease in the participants' stress and anxiety, and maintaining states of happiness and mindfulness. Even during the most critical months of the COVID-19 pandemic, February and May 2021. These results suggest the need to carry out further research, to insert this theme in other areas of academia, which promote life and happiness as part of the human-academic-professional education process.
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Copyright (c). Conjuncture Bulletin (BOCA)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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