Poster #138 - “I hate not going places. I miss friends.” Children’s Perspective of School During the Pandemic

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Based on assessments that are standards in educational and clinical settings, evidence indicates that children’s academic achievement suffered, and mental health problems rose during the pandemic. Although previous research greatly contributes to our understanding of how COVID impacted children, there might be pandemic experiences that bothered children a great deal but are not captured in traditional assessments. Focusing on clinical levels of mental health problems may fail to identify the experiences of typical children. Children’s perspectives can be gained by using qualitative assessments that do not pre-suppose children’s concerns. Combining both quantitative and qualitative measures may provide new insights.

Using a mixed-method approach, we focused on middle school students’ school experiences. Because school modality (in-person or online) may have affected experiences, we examined if outcomes varied by school modality.

Participants were recruited through schools and online from December 2020 to March 2021 as part of a larger project on the impact of COVID-19 on families with middle-school children. We report on 265 children (51% girls; 50% White; 46% Black) in 6th-8th grade. Based on child reports, at the time of the survey 49% were attending school in-person, 41% online, and 10% a combination of the two.

Children completed online surveys with multiple measures assessing their experiences with COVID. First, children were asked an open-ended question about how things were going during the pandemic. Then using a combination of published and author-generated quantitative measures, children responded to questions about school, including how much they missed school, academic self-concept, and school attitudes.

An emergent coding process with constant comparison was used to analyze the open-ended responses. Due to the multifaceted nature of the responses, a single answer could be coded as having more than one theme. Table 1 presents the most prevalent themes and examples of each. The most common theme was missing friends and social activities (37% of responses), which was mentioned at a much higher rate than unhappiness with COVID restrictions and school life, each mentioned by approximately 20% of the participants. It is interesting that 10% of children were able to recognize both good and bad outcomes (School-ambivalent theme) related to the changes they experienced. Open-ended responses did not generally differ based on school modality.

Examination of the responses on quantitative measures indicated that compared to children attending school online, children attending school in-person had more favorable attitudes toward school t(219) = 2.27, p = .024, d = 0.31, especially in the area of friendships t(213) = 5.21, p < .001, d = 0.73. Children in the two groups were marginally significantly different in their academic self-concept, t(254) = 1.66 p = .098, d = 0.21, with children attending in-person having higher scores. Interestingly, academic self-concept was correlated with more favorable friendships r(240) = .18, p = .006. How much children missed “regular” school was not related to school modality.

In conclusion, regardless of school modality children missed being with their friends. Missing school friends may undermine children’s attitudes toward school and affect academic self-concept. Attending school online may adversely impact children’s feelings about their friends and school.

Group Authors

Alabama Rural Families Wellbeing Group

Authors

• Joan M Barth, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
  Presenting Author

• Stephanie Masters, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

• Candace Turner, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa