Impact of COVID-19 lockdown policy on the anxiety of the engineers-in-training in ABU Zaria Engineering Faculty in Nigeria

Anxiety is a public phenomenon that constitutes a public source of inadequate performance globally and plays a significant role in their lives. Engineering students and academics have been through immense changes in education because of the effect of the COVID-19 crisis. It is well-known that epidemics' occurrence creates or accentuates new stressors, including panic and fears for loved ones or oneself, constraints on social activities and physical movement due to quarantine, and unforeseen and radical change of lifestyle. This study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown policy on engineering students’ anxiety in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria. The study confirmed that the students had an increase in the anxiety level, in which the female student had a higher level of anxiety than the male students. The highest contributing factors to the anxiety include "worries about academic delays/extension of the academic calendar," "worries about a delay in life plans as a result of the suspension of school," and "worries about running out of supplies." The main areas that anxiety impacted the lives of the students include "a decline in book reading /studies/academics," "finding it hard to focus," "being unable to hang out with friends," and "difficulties in falling asleep." Finally, the students managed the level of anxiety mainly by "the use of internet/social media/chatting," "prayer/self-motivation/meditation/reflection," and "watching movies/TV/music."


INTRODUCTION
Anxiety is a public phenomenon that constitutes a public source of inadequate performance globally. Engineering students and academics have been through immense changes in education due to the impact of the COVID-

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Ukr. J. of Educ. Stud. and Inf. Technol. 2021, 9(2) The university was established in 1962 as the first university in the Northern Region of Nigeria, sited along Funtua-Gusau Road, and located at longitude 7°30'E to 7°45'E of the Greenwich Meridian, and latitude 11°15'N to 11°3'N of the equator (Abbas & Arigbede, 2012) as shown in Figure 1.

Study population and sample size
The population comprises male and female students running programs in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, with about 35,000 students. This study enrolled 139 respondents in this survey ranging from under 18 years to above 18 of age, which is slightly higher than the value obtained from the recommended sample size computed as 133 via the use of the mathematical expression presented below: ( -) (1) and ( ) Where, represented the critical value obtained for the Normal distribution at α/2, for a given confidence level of 95%, α is 0.05, MOE denotes the margin of error, which was taken to be 8.3%, p represented the sample proportion which was taken to be 50%, and N is the population size (i.e., 35,0000 students). The expressed was adopted from literature (Daniel, 1999).

Research instruments
To achieve the set goals for other studies, several performance variables were adequately selected to measure the attention and concentration of the student in their private study during the lockdown period as well as some personality variables like symptoms checklist were employed to assess their anxiety, depression, personality disorder, and lot more. Other personality variables considered were motivational structure and interest (especially those used in managing the anxiety during lockdown period), styles of their daily lives (like eating habits, reading/study habits, sleeping routine, and many others), and stress coping. The data for this assessment were collected via an objective test using a questionnaire (i.e., the research instrument) in which the study behaviors were rated, and the resulting outcome was used to measure their expressive behaviors.
The research instrument used for this study was tagged "COVID-19 Lockdown Policy Impact on the anxiety caused on Engineering Students of ABU Zaria Questionnaire". However, an electronic approach was employed via electronic questionnaires designed using Google OS Form (using cloud computing) to ease the one-on-one data collection for this study to obtain the relevant data. The questionnaire was divided into four sections: biodata/sociodemographic-data, evaluation of the anxiety level, the impact it caused on the students, and how they manage their respective situations. The response/opinions of the participating students were being collected on a scale of 1 to 3, where 1 stand for 'Affected' OR 'Yes,' 2 stands for 'Not Certain of Whether Affected or Not' OR 'Not-sure,' and 3 stands for 'Not affected ' OR 'No.' In the design of the questionnaire, it was ensured that the questionnaire items show a good correspondence with the research questions for the study. Moreover, in obtaining answers for each research question, several forms of related checklist items were provided for the respondents to tick to ascertain the consistency and reliability of their feedback and from which the average rating for their answers was used for the measurement.

Research design and analytical method
In line with the approach used in previous studies (Ojetunde, Bamigbala, & Oyegoke, 2020), a hybrid method that combines the use of descriptive and full factorial design method was adopted for this study, where the data were analyzed using frequency counts, mean, percentage, f-test, while using 2 by 3 design for the factorial analysis. A descriptive approach was employed to describe how it was varying from one engineering department to another.
A full-factorial design method (Table 1) was adopted for understanding how the different categories of students were affected and the impact of the selected 3 factors, which entails the students' age, educational level, and gender on how much it contributed to their level of anxiety and its impact on them.
8 categories of students were identified as possible, out of which categories of respondents did not participate such was acknowledged as 'one with 24 Ukr. J. of Educ. Stud. and Inf. Technol. 2021, 9(2) an uncertain view' whose scores were taken to be as 2 based on this study's scale. The response (i.e., output) variable was the anxiety level (AL), anxiety impact level (AIL), and anxiety management level (AML) were recorded as the mean scores. Also, the factors were designed to be on two levels each. The hypotheses articulated were evaluated at 0.05 levels of significance using both the mean and ANOVA. In the evaluation, when the 'mean is less than 2,' or 'prob>f value is less than 0.05,' it implies hypothesis acceptance, while if otherwise, it would be rejected.

Ethical consideration
Assent was obtained from every respondent individually before filling the questionnaire. The respondents' privilege was secured by illuminating each respondent about this research purpose and not constraining them to participate-anonymity guaranteed that distinguishing data about each respondent was not gathered. Respondents' identities during the research and after the research were not disclosed. And all data was for only research purposes and kept classified.

Biodata distributions
From the data collected from the survey represented in Table 2, the female percentage was 10.8%, while that of the male was 89.2%. The findings unveiled that the engineering faculty is dominated mainly by male students in the selected tertiary institution. The percentage of students whose age is over 18 years (that is, adult) was 97.1% for age distribution. In comparison, the percentage of those whose age was below 18 years (that is, teenager or underage ones) was 2.9%, which indicated that the number of adult students outweighs the teenage/underage ones from the data collected for engineering students in the Ahmadu Bello University. The findings indicate that Ukr. J. of Educ. Stud. and Inf. Technol. 2021, 9(2) the engineering students are primarily aged 18 and above, implying that most students are adults. Moreover, the distribution of the participating students' education levels represented in Table 2 indicated that most of the respondents are undergraduate (BEng) and postgraduate graduate diploma (PGDE) students, which account for 75.6%, while MSc and PhD students carried about 24.4% which shows a good correlation with the general relative population of undergraduate to postgraduate student ratio.
The Pareto chart represented in Figure 2 indicated that students from the Electrical Engineering department displayed the highest participation (41%), followed by the Department of Chemical Engineering (33%). Next was the Environmental Engineering (26%), Mechanical Engineering (24%), Agricultural Engineering (9%), and other Engineering departments like Polymer, Textile and Materials Engineering, account for only 6%. Table 3 presents the contributing factors (also known as term) that influences the respondents' level of anxiety, where "effect" was used to shows the nature of the influence the factors must have contributed, whether it was a negative or positive influence. The largeness of values obtained for "SumSqr" indicates the height of influence it must have contributed in either increasing or decreasing the level of the students' anxiety. Likewise, the "% Contribtn"

Level of anxiety among the engineering students
Ukr. J. of Educ. Stud. and Inf. Technol. 2021, 9(2) represents the amount of influence the factors (or terms) contributed to rising or falling the students' anxiety level. Any term (or factor) with a percentage contribution of less than 5% was termed to be insignificant. The anxiety level (AL) of the respondents is represented in Table 3. From the results collected in Table 3, the age variation effect was discovered to have shown the highest level of contribution (44.62813 %) towards the rise in the students' anxiety. In other words, the change in age from students lesser than 18 to students greater than 18 resulted in a significant increase in AL, which means students that are greater than 18 years of age showed a greater level of anxiety than students below 18. This could be because most of the respondents in this study were older than 18 years of age or due to the age factor, as they get older without an end to their academic life insight ( Table 3). The next term with a higher % Contribtn (31.52126%) is the multiple effects of age and education (which account for the collective effect of age and education); the result showed a greater level of anxiety in students that are greater than the age of 18 and running an MSc/PhD programs reported in Table 3 for BC term. This could occur due to possible pressure to acquire a higher degree to seek work or promotion at a place of work. Table 3 points out that the anxiety level among the engineering students is mainly influenced by the student's age and educational level, while gender has the most negligible impact on the engineering students' anxiety. In general, students who were older than the age of 18, and students running an MSc/PhD program, likewise female students had more anxiety in this study.

Distribution of contributing factors to the anxiety level of the students
The factors influencing the anxiety level of the engineering students are diagrammatically represented in Figure 3, where the degree of significance was accounted as the percentage contribution of the respective factors evaluated in the study. The ranking of the contributing factors was also presented in the figure using the first to eleventh positions.
In respect to the contributing factors to the anxiety level of the students, 92% and 91% of the students were worried about the delay in their life plan as a result of the lockdown, and academic delay/calendar extension, respectively, Ukr. J. of Educ. Stud. and Inf. Technol. 2021, 9(2) representing the highest factors that contributed to the anxiety level of the students as graphically represented in Figure 3, displayed as the first-two contributing factors significantly influencing the level of their anxiety. Other contributing factors are represented in Figure 3. The mean value of 70% indicated a high level of anxiety among the engineering students; similarly, 67% was reported for the study carried out on nursing students in Turkey, indicating a moderate to severe generalized anxiety disorder (Temiz, 2020).

Impact of the anxiety on the lives of the engineering students
The results obtained for the impact of anxiety on the engineering students' lives are represented in Table 4. The "effect" shows the direction, that is, negative or positive influence/effect of the factor (or term) on the impact caused by the students' anxiety. Also, "% Contribtn" shows the magnitude of each factor (or term). However, the contribution percentage ("%Contribtn") of less than 5% was termed to be insignificant in this study. Following the results gotten from the application of factorial design analysis, the term having the highest % Contribtn were the multiple effects ABC (Gender, Age, and Education) with a negative effect (-8.643130), meaning students who are female, below 18 years of age, and running a BEng/PDGE had a very high impact of the anxiety, indicating that, female students with lower age and education level were highly affected. The deduction was realized to be similar to our previous study (Ojetunde, Bamigbala, & Oyegoke, 2020), where it was confirmed that female students were more vulnerable to psychological distress and anxiety in the course of the COVID-19 lockdown policy in Gusau, a city in Nigeria. The next most significant factor was age (B), a single-effect factor whose percentage contribution was 28.69557% with a positive effect (+8.03576), which indicated that students whose age is above 18 years had a more significant impact of the anxiety.

Distribution of areas that the anxiety impacted on the lives of the students
The areas that anxiety impacted the engineering students are represented in Figure 4. The figure displayed the contribution of the respective areas evaluated in the study, including the ranking of the areas. Ukr. J. of Educ. Stud. and Inf. Technol. 2021, 9(2) Consequently, most students (76% and 75%) lost interest in book reading/studies/academics and found it challenging to focus, respectively. In a previous study, losing interest in book reading is part of the significant factors that affected students in the course of the COVID-19 lockdown policy implementation (Ojetunde, Bamigbala, & Oyegoke, 2020). In another study, about 83% of the respondents reported that learning was challenging during the lockdown because of many distractions at home (Orok, David, Olajide, Sulaiman, & Oyewole, 2020). Also, a more significant percentage of the students (67%) confirmed having difficulties falling asleep in the course of the lockdown, which could occur due to fear of contracting the coronavirus or the fear that their friends/family members could contract the virus. Similarly, in a study, about 61% of the respondents reported difficulties falling asleep and woke up many times during the night (Segre, Campi, Scarpellini, Clavenna, Zanettl, Cartabia, & Bonati, 2020).

Level of management taken by the student
The contribution or influence of gender, age, and education level on the level of anxiety management employed by the students are presented in Table 5, where the "effect" tells us about the impact or influence in terms of being positive or negative. In contrast, the "% Contribtn" presented the weight or significance of the effect toward the anxiety management level in percentage. From Table 5, the students who are greater than 18 years of age significantly had a higher level of management than students below 18 years of age. Moreover, female students significantly had an increased level of anxiety management than male students. And a student in MSc/Ph.D. level managed the anxiety more than the student undergoing BEng/PGDE.

Distribution of the management approach taken by the students
The management approach employed by the engineering students in managing the negative impact of the COVID-19 lockdown is represented in Figure 5. The percentage contribution and ranking of the respective management approaches evaluated in the study were also presented in the figure.
Ukr. J. of Educ. Stud. and Inf. Technol. 2021, 9(2) Figure 5. The management approach employed by the students in combating the anxiety The students used different coping strategies during the lockdown caused by the pandemic. Majority of the students (93%) employed the internet, social media, and chatting to manage their anxiety level during the lockdown. Previous reports have shown that there was an increase in media consumption, the use of social media platform, and the use of the internet during the lockdown (Chauhan & Shah, 2020;Orok, David, Olajide, Sulaiman, & Oyewole, 2020;Ojewale, 2020;Temiz, 2020;Saltzman, Hansel, & Bordnick, 2020;Hatun, Dicle, & Demirci, 2020;Gao et al., 2020). Studies have discovered that the reasons for the increase in the level of internet usage were: Boredom, more online conversations because of social isolation, increased homework because of distant learning, and trying to get more information about COVID-19 (Saltzman, Hansel, & Bordnick, 2020;Hatun, Dicle, & Demirci, 2020;Bilge & Bilge, 2020).
In this study, a more significant percentage of the students also reported prayer/self-motivation/meditation/reflection as an anxiety management approach, which may be since Nigerians are highly religious.

Distribution of anxiety, its impact on students' lives, and the management level employed by the students across the engineering departments of the faculty
The results represented for the distribution of the engineering students' anxiety level (AL), anxiety impact management (AIL), and anxiety management Ukr. J. of Educ. Stud. and Inf. Technol. 2021, 9(2) level (AML) across the departments are graphically represented in Figure 6. It was discovered that the Chemical/Petroleum Engineering department showed the highest AL (79%), indicating the department with the most affected students, while Mechanical, Mechatronics, Automobile, and Metallurgical Engineering Department was showed the lower AL (62%). In terms of AIL, the Chemical/Petroleum Engineering Department was discovered to have shown the highest impact (73%), while Agricultural/Bioresources Engineering recorded the lowest impact (42%). The evaluation of the AML across the department, Chemical/Petroleum Engineering was found to have displayed the highest management, which is relatively low when compared to the AL, unlike that of Mechanical, Mechatronics, Automobile, and Metallurgical Engineering, which was relatively high when AML is compared to be AL which must have contributed in maintaining a lower AIL. Figure 6. Distribution of anxiety, its impact on students' lives, and the management approach employed by the students across the engineering faculty departments The correlation/trend between anxiety level (AL), anxiety impact management (AIL), and anxiety management level (AML) across all the departments (Agricultural, Bioresources, Environmental, Civil, Electrical, Electronics, Computer, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Automobile, and Metallurgical Engineering) were discovered to be similar except for the department of Chemical Engineering that displayed a different trend as represented in Figure 6 which could occur due to the relative low AML employed by the students of Chemical Engineering. The deduction is evident in Figure 7, where it could be seen that for all the 11 tests/questions asked in the study for the AL, AIL, and AML from the engineering student of Chemical/Petroleum, only in few cases it can be seen that the AML is higher than the AIL and AL in Figure 7.
Ukr. J. of Educ. Stud. and Inf. Technol. 2021, 9(2) Figure 7. Distribution of factors responsible for anxiety, its impact on students' lives, and the management level employed by the students in the chemical/petroleum department The highest contributing factor to the anxiety level of the chemical/petroleum department was worried about academic delays/calendar extension (i.e., item 1), missing social activities enjoyed on the campus (i.e., item 8), and being worried about delay in life plan as a result of the suspension of the school (i.e., item 10) in Figure 7 with relations to the items represented in Figure 3 for the AL. The most significant impact of the anxiety on students of chemical/petroleum engineering is item 3 (i.e., they find it hard to focus) and item 4 (i.e., missing the freedom to hang out with their friends), which has significantly affected the students. The deductions are evident in Figure 7 in relation to Figure 4 (AL). However, the few anxiety management strategies adopted by the students of the Chemical/Petroleum engineering department which yielded a significant impact were item 2 (i.e., use of the internet, social media, and chatting), item 5-7 (i.e., watching movies/TV, listening to pieces of music, prayer, selfmotivation, medication/reflection), and slightly item 9 (i.e., reading nonacademic books) which are evident in Figure 7 with relation to Figure 5 (for AML).

CONCLUSIONS
The adverse effect of the lockdown policy that occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the anxiety of ABU Zaria engineering faculty students was successfully studied through the application of factorial design analysis techniques by investigating the students' anxiety level, the anxiety impact level, and the anxiety management level during the COVID-19 lockdown period. That is a period when a physical barrier is introduced in between students and lecturer, turning the teaching method into becoming entirely Ukr. J. of Educ. Stud. and Inf. Technol. 2021, 9(2) virtual and in some cases partially virtual, when a good number of students are not ready for the mode of training, especially in developing nations where student have insufficient knowledge of ICT due to inadequate ICT facilities in their local institutions.
In general, the study affirmed that the students had an increase in their anxiety level, in which the female student had a higher level of anxiety than the male students. The higher contributing factors to the anxiety include "worries about academic delays/extension of the academic calendar," "worries about a delay in life plans due to the suspension of school," and "worries about running out of supplies." However, chemical/petroleum options of the engineering faculty studied were discovered to be highly affected, which was found to be connected with the relative lower anxiety management approach used by the students of the concerned department compared to the anxiety level experienced by the students, unlike the form of behavior or trends obtained from the other department.
The main areas of anxiety that impacted the lives of the students include "a decline in book reading/studies/academics," "finding it hard to focus," "being unable to hang out with friends," and "difficulties in falling asleep." Finally, the students managed the level of anxiety mainly by "the use of internet, social media, and chatting," "prayer, self-motivation, meditation and reflection," and "watching movies, TV, and music."

RECOMMENDATIONS
The National University Commission (NUC) and the university's management are encouraged to adopt a hybrid teaching and learning methodology for future engineers' (i.e., students) training. Adopting the approach would enable students and staff to get familiarized with virtual platform use during restriction and non-restriction periods. The approach would effectively lessen the level of depressions and anxiety that students go through during the lockdown, which boosts their morale that their school programs would not be affected and interest to pursue further studies would not be discouraged. The ministry of education should commission a national platform for a virtual learning training session and an online national students' counseling platform to support the universities and other schools in meeting the need of the students virtually and to several as a supporting unit for the growth of education standard and better management of students especially during the lockdown, labor strike or vacation periods.