Effects of Physical Environmental Design Attributes on Psychological Well-being of College Students in University Dormitory During the Covid-19 Pandemic Period

During pandemic period, college students lost lots of such academic opportunities as extra-curriculum social activities, contact classes, and friendly socializing in university campus area, etc. Previous many studies have shown that physical environment has certain relevance on the well-being of human-beings. Recent public statistics on mental health had shown an increase in psychological distress and a decrease in college students and people's well-being during the lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, there were little evidence on what the college students in dormitory suffered from COVID-19 incident in relation with their physical environment. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between environmental factors and psychological well-being of dormitory students in university campus. In order to explore the impact of physical environment on students' psychological well-being, survey instrumentation consisted of 25 indices were employed to measure the level of awareness to each index. A Chi-square analysis on individual characteristics of 200 students found that number of students living in single dwelling unit was statistically significant to maintain their psychological well-being, except for number of students living in each dwelling unit (χ² =128.92, p= .004). Pearson correlation analysis also found that there exists statistically significant relationship between psychological well-being of students and environmental factors. Further, stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most prime predictor for psychological well-being of students residing in dorm was "use of furniture" (β= .281), implying careful design, lay-out and easy-access to interior furniture by facility planner. The study also demonstrated that as the level of positive perception of physical environmental features rose, overall psychological well-being of students also responded positively at specified rate. Finally, the findings reinforce a solid evidence that carefully well-coordinated physical environments play an important role in maintaining emotional stability of college students in dorm even in pandemic period.