The Covid-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on the entire world population. Like many
countries, France and Turkey have had to put in place health measures to slow the spread of the
epidemic, including containment measures. These measures have had consequences on the mental
health of the general population in France and in Turkey, especially in the student population.
Several quantitative and longitudinal studies have revealed psychological suffering among French
and Turkish students. This suffering depends on several factors: Suffering linked to isolation,
modification of the working environment, economic weakening, the health crisis and the
psychological impact.
Both in France and Turkey, the successive lockdowns put in place by the government had a
psychological impact on the French population, accentuating the effects of the health crisis (Mengin
et al., 2020; Gandré et al., 2020) and the French student population in particular on (Arsandaux et al.,
2020). An increase in moderate to severe depressive and anxiety symptoms was observed among
French and Turkish students, especially among students with loss of income, those with a pre-
existing psychiatric disorder or isolated students (Gandré et al. 2020; Wathelet et al., 2020,
Observatoire national de la Vie Étudiante, 2020; Janne, 2020; Akdeniz et al., 2020). Anxiety and
depression are also the major symptoms among Turkish students (YakarB., 2020; Karaşar and
Canlı, 2020). Confinement linked to the epidemic also increased cannabis use (Briand Madrid et al.
2020). Female students seem to have more psychological distress and symptoms of anxiety
compared to male students (Roux et al., Razafilisy et al., 2020).
This study seeks to understand the complexity of the subjective experience of students linked to the
COVID-19 pandemic and to the various lockdown periods in France and Turkey and their
consequences from an individual point of view.
From a methodological point of view, it should be noted that most of this research is based on
epidemiological surveys via online self-questionnaires, using psychometric scales specifically
relating to the mental health of students during periods of confinement. We wish to offer another
form of understanding of the students' experience during this period from an individualised approach
centred on the students' experience.
The research methodology is based on a semi-structured research interview and an open research
interview on the subjective experience of students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Open interviews
centred on the subjective experiences of students in this period of pandemic will provide an
individual and qualitative perspective as a counterpoint to quantitative studies. The interviews will
be analysed according to a thematic methodology. In addition, we will also use the Brief COPE
(Carver, 1997; Muller and Spitz, 2003; Cantin, 2019) to assess people's coping strategies and
responses to stressful situations in a recent context. This coping scale has been validated both in
France and in Turkey, thus allowing comparison between the two populations. A group of 40
students from France (20 male students and 20 female students), and a group of 40 students from
Turkey (20 male students and 20 female students), aged 20 to 30, enrolled in a university course
from Bachelor to Doctorate will be the sample of the study.
In order to contribute to this research, we felt it was interesting to carry out a comparative study, not
of the mental health of Turkish and French students, but of the subjective experience and the
psychological impact on these students during the pandemic, without prejudice.
In a time of globalisation and increased international exchanges, this research project aims to help
identify characteristics common to different cultures, as well as their specificities, concerning the