Covid -19 & college students: a study on gender difference in college students self-efficacy, social support & meaning in life

The covid-19 pandemic caused by a novel corona virus has dramatically changed the lives of millions of people across the globe; including students, over only a few months. The mandated lockdown enforced by the government to curb the spread of corona virus disease has seriously disrupted the social life of college students. The virus’s unfolding has caused college students to stay at home and get in contact with their inner lives. The present research aims to study gender difference in college students’ self-efficacy, social support & the meaning in life during the lockdown period due to covid-19. The study analyzes the change on multiple dimensions of self-realization such as self-efficacy, social support, meaning of life by comparing among male and female college-going students. The study was conducted on 70 college (35 male and 35 female) students from Chandigarh, India. Standardized measures of self-efficacy, social support, the meaning of life was administered to participants. The outcome of the study showed that males were found to have greater self-efficacy than females among all the variables selected. The results also showed that there is a positive correlation between social support and self-efficacy and the presence of meaning and self-efficacy. These findings may enable administrators and health providers to recognize more effectively the population of college students especially females and develop effective approaches to address raising the self-efficacy among females.