The Effect of Covid-19 Disease on the Mental Health and Attendance of Urban Planning Students: A Case Study of Students of Islamic Azad University of Mashhad

At the end of December 2019, the spread of a new infectious disease was reported in Wuhan, China. It was created by a new coronavirus and was officially named Covid-19 by the World Health Organization. This disease not only causes public health concerns but also causes a number of psychological diseases. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Covid-19 disease on the mental health and attendance of urban planning students in the Islamic Azad University of Mashhad and the relationship between them. The statistical population of the study, using the Cochran's formula, is 229 people out of the total number of urban planning students of Mashhad Azad University with 600 inputs from 94 to 97. Random sampling method has been employed. The data collection tool in this study is a researcher-made questionnaire, which includes a combination of standard mental health questionnaire SCL-25 and questions related to students'attendance in urban areas. In this study, data are analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis technique in AMOS software, to significantly determine the regression weight of different structures of the questionnaire to predict the relevant items. After library studies and collecting data by the field-based method, in the final stage, raw data obtained from the questionnaires are analyzed using SPSS software to describe the current situation, and the statistical method of Pearson correlation and Linear regression are used to analyze the indicators. The results of the present study show that the disease has caused anger and violence among students, which in turn affects mental health factors and their attendance, because these same people enter the university and city with a violent spirit. Finally, it was found out that there is a direct relationship between Covid-19 disease, mental health and students' attendance.