Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Oct 20, 2021
Date Accepted: Jul 23, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Oct 13, 2022
Students` Emotional Well-being and Academic Functioning Before, During, and After Lockdown in Germany: A Cohort Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The COVID-19 lockdowns have led to social detriments and altered learning environments among university students. Existing research indicates that such ramifications may engender various impairments to students' mental health. Yet, such research has major limitations such as the lack of a pre-pandemic control measure, the focus on singular well-being parameters, and the investigation of only the early phases of the pandemic.
Objective:
To address these research gaps, the present comprehensive and nationwide study compared three student cohorts in Germany: a pre-pandemic cohort (Jan-Feb 2020), a post-lockdown cohort (May-Jul 2020), and an intra-lockdown cohort (Jan-Feb 2021) regarding students' general emotional well-being and academic functioning. It was hypothesized that, due to rigorous lockdown-related restrictions, students in the intra-lockdown cohort would report diminished general emotional well-being compared to the other cohorts. Furthermore, due to ongoing remote learning since the beginning of the pandemic, it was expected that students' academic functioning would decrease across all three cohorts.
Methods:
The data collection was performed over three consecutive semesters (fall semester 2019, spring semester 2020, and fall semester 2020). Students were surveyed online on various aspects regarding their general emotional well-being (e.g., stress, general well-being) and academic functioning (e.g., concentration, study-related flow). Data analyses were performed using multivariate analyses of variance.
Results:
A total of N = 787 students participated in this study. Results indicated higher general well-being in the post-lockdown cohort compared to the intra-lockdown cohort (P =.02). As for students' academic functioning, results revealed that students in the pre-pandemic cohort reported higher study-related flow (P = .007) and concentration (P = .001) compared to the intra-lockdown cohort. Also, students reported higher flow (P = .04) and concentration (P = .04) in the post-lockdown cohort compared to the intra-lockdown cohort. No cohort effects were revealed for other aspects of general emotional well-being (e.g., perceived stress) and academic functioning (e.g., procrastination).
Conclusions:
This study indicates that students' general emotional well-being, as well as motivational and attentional components of academic functioning, can be impaired due to the COVID-19 lockdowns and ongoing remote learning formats. The necessity and design of interventional programs remedying such effects in light of the ongoing crisis need to be addressed. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04550286
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