COVID-19, the transition to virtual schooling, and impacts on adolescent stress and wellbeing

• In Event: Understanding the Impacts of Environmental Unpredictability and Volatility on Typical and Atypical Development

Abstract

Background: The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and its impacts on the operations of schools and businesses, was met with projections from researchers and policymakers about risks to the mental health and wellbeing of both children and adults (e.g., Gruber et al, 2020). While early surveys identified concerning levels of stress and anxiety among adults, especially parents, few empirical studies have reported on the pandemic’s impacts on adolescents. We contribute to this literature by investigating the experience of high school students (Mage = 15.3 years, SD = 0.71) during the first four months of the shutdown. These adolescents are participants in a larger longitudinal study that enrolls first-year high school students and follows them throughout their high school years; here we focus on N = 130 students who provided data both prior to and during the shutdown associated with COVID-19.
Methods: The present project draws on daily diary and survey data in which adolescents report on key sources of stress in their lives; their emotions and moods; and their daily routines, including exercise and sleep. In light of the stressors associated with the pandemic, and the protests against police brutality that arose later in the spring of 2020, we added several questions to our measures that asked adolescents specifically about their experiences of these events.
Results: Our results focus primarily on measures that were asked both before and during the shutdown. Fixed effects models allow us to isolate changes between the pre-shutdown and shutdown periods, which we interpret as estimates of the causal impact of the shutdown on adolescent outcomes. In addition, we test whether family socioeconomic status (SES) moderates the impact of the shutdown, employing a measure of the highest level of parental education as a proxy for SES.
In diary reports of adolescents’ daily stress, we observe a large impact of the shutdown on school-related stress, which decreased more than 0.7 SD (p < 0.001), and home- and health-related stress, which increased more than 0.6 SD (p < 0.001). Moderation by SES was observed only for home- and health-related stress, which increased more for low/moderate SES students (0.74 SD, p < 0.001) than their high SES peers (0.34 SD, p < 0.01; see fig. 1). We also observed significant main effects of the shutdown on several mood states, with other impacts moderated by SES. Results will explore these patterns in greater detail, including adolescents’ descriptions of their experiences of the pandemic.
Interpretation: Overall, our results suggest that this period may have been less stressful than expected for adolescents in this age group, with the shift away from busy school and extracurricular schedules offering some measure of reprieve via lower stress levels and more rest. More concerning, though, is that the psychological burden of this national crisis was unevenly distributed by SES even among adolescents. We will also explore the implications of these findings for education and family policy as the nation continues to grapple with decisions about virtual learning and policy responses to the pandemic.

Authors

• Sarah Collier Villaume, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Jacquelyn Stephens, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ednah Nwafor, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emma Kristine Adam, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author