**10. Conclusions**

Our study was conducted six weeks after the lockdown in Poland when the restrictions were highly pronounced, the prevalence and the mortality rates were relatively low, and the knowledge about COVID-19 was still insufficient. The results of this study show that the severity of symptoms that range from moderate to extremely severe concerned the following groups of students—43.4% in the depression subscale, 27.3% in the anxiety subscale, and 41.0% in the stress subscale, indicating a high percentage of the students experienced significant clinical, emotional distress.

We tried to create a portrait of a Polish student who may potentially require specific psychological and/or psychiatric support during a pandemic. The results obtained in our study show that being a female science student, living with roommates, suffering from mental disorders, and using the support of a psychiatrist and/or psychologist before the pandemic predisposes a student to increased emotional response. Besides, additional aspects associated with the increased risk of enhanced emotional responses were a feeling of loneliness during the pandemic and a deterioration of the financial situation during the pandemic that required the need to borrow money to support oneself.

While comparing our results with other similar studies conducted during the lockdown with the usage of the same instrument—the DASS-21—it turned out that Polish students presented with higher depression, anxiety, and stress levels compared to Chinese and Spanish students, whereas they presented with lower levels compared to Bangladeshi students, indicating that socio-political factors might also potentially increase the emotional distress, and should be considered. Therefore, it must be taken into consideration that a

particular nationality or culture might present different intensities of depression, anxiety, stress, or other emotional symptoms in response to the same agent. The understanding of this point is crucial to provide the right approach as well as proper potential psychological and/or psychiatric help for all of the students of different nationalities.

The social, economic, and health situations that are continually changing due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Poland and the world that require specific adaptive resources and social support might be a huge stressor to maintain the proper mental wellbeing of many students. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor the mental health status of students as well as to identify potential risk factors that might contribute to the induction of mental disorders to further provide the proper psychological and psychiatric help for those students who require it the most.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0 383/10/5/944/s1, Table S1: The results of the DASS total score for the field of study, Table S1.2: The results of the DASS depression scale for the field of study, Table S1.3: The results of the DASS anxiety scale for the field of study, Table S1.4: The results of the DASS stress scale for the field of study, Table S2: The results of the DASS total score for the most prevalent difficulties during pandemics, Table S2.2: The results of the DASS depression scale for the most prevalent difficulties during pandemics, Table S2.3: The results of the DASS anxiety scale for the most prevalent difficulties during pandemics, Table S2.4: The results of the DASS stress scale for the most prevalent difficulties during pandemics, Table S3: The results of the DASS total score for the most prevalent chronic diseases, Table S3.2: The results of the DASS depression scale for the most prevalent chronic diseases, Table S3.3: The results of the DASS anxiety scale for the most prevalent chronic diseases, Table S3.4: The results of the DASS stress scale for the most prevalent chronic diseases, Table S4: The results of the DASS total score for the usage of either psychological or psychiatric help before the pandemics outbreak, Table S4.2: The results of the DASS depression scale for the usage of either psychological or psychiatric help before the pandemics outbreak, Table S4.3: The results of the DASS anxiety scale for the usage of either psychological or psychiatric help before the pandemics outbreak, Table S4.4: The results of the DASS stress scale for the usage of either psychological or psychiatric help before the pandemics outbreak, Table S5: The results of the DASS total score for the economic situation during pandemics, Table S5.2: The results of the DASS depression scale for the economic situation during pandemics, Table S5.3: The results of the DASS anxiety scale for the economic situation during pandemics, Table S5.4: The results of the DASS stress scale for the economic situation during pandemics, Table S6: The results of the DASS total score for the current employment situation, Table S6.2: The results of the DASS depression scale for the current employment situation, Table S6.3: The results of the DASS anxiety scale for the current employment situation, Table S6.4: The results of the DASS stress scale for the current employment situation, Table S7: The results of the DASS total score for the current living situation, Table S7.2: The results of the DASS depression scale for the current living situation, Table S7.3: The results of the DASS anxiety scale for the current living situation, Table S7.4: The results of the DASS stress scale for the current living situation, Table S8: The sociodemographic data of the respondents.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, H.K.-J., J.B. (Jacek Baj), and D.J.; methodology, E.S., K.K., J.B. (Jacek Bogucki), and A.F.; formal analysis, H.K.-J., D.J., and J.B. (Jacek Baj); investigation, E.S., K.K., and A.F.; resources, E.S., K.K., and A.F.; writing—original draft preparation, H.K.-J., E.S., K.K., and A.F.; writing—review and editing, H.K.-J., D.J., and J.B. (Jacek Baj); visualization, H.K.-J. and K.K.; supervision, H.K.-J. and D.J. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committee of Medical University of Lublin (protocol code—KE-0254/91/2020; date of approval—30 April 2020).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
