Rita Cerutti: Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy. ORCID
Valentina Spensieri: Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy.
Simone Amendola: Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy. ORCID
Giuseppe Stefano Biuso: Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy.
Alessia Renzi: Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy.
Renata Tambelli: Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about new stressors on university students, with a negative impact on their mental health and well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of a brief psychodynamically oriented intervention on general functioning by investigating changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and burnout. The sample was comprised of 67 university students (22.4% males), with a mean age of 23.27 (standard deviation (SD) = 3.27), who asked for psychological help at a psychological university service. Pre- and posttreatment data showed a significant improvement in general functioning and symptom reduction due to the psychological intervention. The mean change was very high for depression ( = 1.11) and high for general functioning ( = 0.70) and anxiety ( = 0.69). Our findings showed the importance of considering university students a vulnerable population that requires specific services within the university context and underlined the fact that mental-health-promotion policies should be extensively implemented.
