Introduction:

The global alarm for the covid-19 pandemic has affected not only the physical health but also the mental health of the entire population, including young university students.

Objective:

To characterize the presence of anxiety (Anxiety State-AE and Anxiety trait-AR) in students of a Colombian Caribbean State University in a situation of compulsory confinement due to covid-19.

Method:

descriptive quantitative research and cross-sectional design, with intentional sampling. 371 students from the six Faculties of the participating university participated, men and women, with a minimum age of 16 and a maximum of 33 years, M of 18,3 years and DT of 2,1 years. The students responded to the STAI Questionnaire (State Trait Anxiety Inventory), through the Google Forms platform, which was sent to 1200 students by email, during the month of May 2020. The data was processed through the SPSSv21, they did descriptive analysis by groups and Odds Ratio (OR).

Results:

Anxiety levels were found to be slightly higher in EA and RA in the male sex in the very high category for both adolescents and adults. Meanwhile, in the high category, higher EA was found in the female sex in the age range of 19 years or older, and in the range of 16 to 18 years RA was slightly higher in the female sex. Likewise, adolescent females have an OR of 2,2 times more EA than adults, representing a risk to their health.

Conclusions:

University students present high levels of anxiety, slightly higher in adolescents than in adults, which puts their mental health at risk, therefore, intervention measures are suggested from health psychology for prevention and monitoring purposes advances through new research.

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