Introduction to the special issue: How COVID‐19 has affected students' health, achievement, and mental health

Abstract

The worldwide pandemic caused by COVID‐19 was an event that has left an indelible mark upon the people who lived through this period. This special issue of Psychology in the Schools is devoted to exploring the wide range of issues that children, families, and schools dealt with during the pandemic. The following topics are discussed: (1) an overview of how children were affected in both physical and psychological terms, (2) the range of problems that professionals working with youth during the pandemic had to address, (3) the special issues that impacted college‐age students during the pandemic, and finally (4) the various factors that influenced the level of impact that COVID‐19 had on children and their families.

Practitioner points

• 1.This Special issue contributions will assist in dealing with future pandemic crisis.
• 2.School professionals address the physical and psychological issues that arose during the pandemic.
• 3.This issue addresses how college‐age students were impacted by the pandemic.

1. INTRODUCTION

At the point of writing this introduction, it has been nearly 3 years since case of COVID‐19 was reported in Wuhan China. It is estimated that well over 14.9 million people have died worldwide from the epidemic, with over 1 million of those deaths occurring in the United States alone (World Health Organization, 2022). As we well remember, lockdowns occurred across the world in such a manner to deprive people of regular contact with family members, workplace relationships, community centers and a wide range of other resources. Of special note, was the need to keep children from school to lessen the spread of the disease. Across the world, millions of children had to be kept away from schools and the various resources available for children's' educational and socio‐emotional growth typically available at school. Parents of children with special learning disabilities, cognitive impairments, behavioral or physical health issues had to find ways to cope and deal with their increased care responsibilities. In addition, there were millions of vital workers who had to find ways to assist the public in new and sometimes untested ways to continue to provide services. This group of workers included such people as nurses, teachers, behavioral health clinicians, and many other service personnel all with the common goal of maintaining professional levels of care throughout a worldwide pandemic.

1.1. Special issue contributions

1.1.1. Issue impacting school‐aged children and adolescents

This special issue provides an opportunity to reflect upon the pandemic and its impact on children, parents, and the schools. Through a series of general overview articles, the special issue explores a range of topics related to school‐age children and youth and the pandemic. In the first section, Mayra, Kandiah, and McIntosh provide a discussion of the various physical health‐related issues brought about by COVID‐19 in children and adolescents. The article entitled, “COVID‐19 and Health in Children and Adolescents in the US: A Narrative Systematic Review” found that consumption of unhealthy savory and sweet items increased while decreases in exercise and sleep were noted. These combinations could lead to long‐term health issues if continued.

The next article in the special issue, “The Impact of COVID‐19 on School‐aged Children,” by Witzig, Stone, and McIntosh explores the range of psychological issues that effected school‐age children. The authors also discuss implications for practice, particularly related to telehealth. And, the article provides a narrative snapshot of a case example of a school‐aged child during the pandemic.

In the article, “Anxiety and Psychological Needs of High School Students: COVID‐19 Period” the relationship between anxiety and psychological needs of high school students during the pandemic is explored. Erden found that higher levels of love, belonging, and power of basic psychological needs expressed by students were associated with lower levels of anxiety.

1.1.2. Issues that concern professionals when working with youth

Several special issue articles offer an exploration of the various concerns that professionals working with youth had to address during the pandemic. In the article, “Special Education Staff Wellbeing and the Effectiveness of Remote Services During the COVID‐19 Pandemic” looks at how special education staff members were impacted by the pandemic. Womack found that teachers' identification as a person of color, along with reports of higher school connectedness and self‐efficacy were positive indicators of their perceived success of remote special education service delivery.

In the article, “Australian Teacher Stress, Wellbeing, Self‐efficacy, and Safety During the COVID‐19 Pandemic” an interesting perspective on how teachers in Australia were affected by the pandemic is provided. Billet, Turner, and Li found that most teachers reported that were not feeling anxious in their teaching role. However, many of their responses indicated that they were experiencing high levels of stress and low levels of positive feelings such as joy, positivity, and contentment in their work during the COVID‐19. They expressed the belief that the pandemic had negatively impacted their well‐being and self‐efficacy.

Naples, Cipriano, Eveleigh, Stoffers, and Barnes looked at the issue of social‐emotional health of teachers during the pandemic. The article, “Unpacking the Social‐emotional Health of Education Support Professionals During the COVID‐19 Pandemic” explored the experiences of educational support professionals (ESPs) during the pandemic. Their findings suggest that ESPs felt frustrated during the pandemic and reported receiving very little social and emotional support as well.

In an article by McMakin, Ballin, and Fullterton, the effects of secondary trauma are considered. Their article, “Secondary Trauma, Burnout, and Teacher Self‐care During COVID 19: A Mixed Methods Case Study” discusses how teachers adjusted related to the pandemic due to increased responsibilities at work and home, many were able to engage in self‐care behaviors that helped to mitigate the impact of the pandemic stressors.

The next article is a good example of how teachers were critically impactful during the pandemic period. In the article, “Greek Teachers' Resilience Levels During the COVID‐19 Pandemic Lockdown and its Association with Attitudes Towards Emergency Remote Teaching and Perceived stress” found that teacher resilience was essential to decrease stress. Papazis, Avramidis, and Bacopoulou shared their findings from Greece regarding the impact of COVID‐19 on teachers. They found that levels of resilience in teachers was a critical factor in determining the level of stress they experienced as a result of the pandemic.

1.1.3. Issues impacting college students

In the next section, authors explored special issues related to college‐aged students. In the article, “Psychological State and its Correlates of Local College Students in Wuhan During COVID‐19 Pandemic.” college students share firsthand experiences in Wuhan and how students responded psychologically to the pandemic. Liu found that students with pre‐existing medical conditions experienced higher levels of stress. Liu reported that students who had irregular diets and schedules were at higher risk for stress, anxiety, and depression.

Zhang provides an interesting view on post‐pandemic life for college students. In the article, “Parental Marital Conflict, Negative Emotions, Phubbing and Academic Burnout Among College Students in the Postpandemic Era: A Multiple Mediating Model” explores how a multitude of issues can impact parental marital conflict on academic burnout in college students. Zhang used a multiple mediating model to discover the linkages between parental conflict, academic burnout, and use of “phubbing” by the participants.

In the final article of this section, “Responding to the COVID‐19 Public Health Emergency: The Usefulness of an Online Brief Psychological Intervention with Italian University Students” explored the usefulness of an online brief therapeutic intervention with Italian university students. Cerutti report that the intervention led to significant improvements in general functioning and symptom reduction. Cerutti noted that the mean change was very high for depression and high for general functioning and anxiety.

1.1.4. Factors that May influence the impact of COVID‐19

In the final section of this special issue, various authors explore the factors that may influence the impact the pandemic has on school age youth. In the article, “Does Educational Stress Mediate the Relationship Between Intolerance of Uncertainty and Academic Life Satisfaction in Teenagers During the COVID‐19 Pandemic?” Ayden, Odachi, and Kaya found that teenagers in Turkey who expressed intolerance of uncertainty directly and indirectly via educational stress experienced lower levels of academic and life satisfaction.

This next article highlights the importance of school nurses as a vital member of the school team. In the article, “School Nurse and COVID‐19 Response” explored the responses of school nurses to COVID‐19 using a case study. McIntosh, Brelage, Thomas, Wendel, and Phelps note that COVID‐19 made people more aware of the important role of school nurses as they can be the one person to help nonhealth educated individuals make sense of, and act on evidence‐based practice recommendations.

In the article, “Creative Adolescent Experiences of Education and Mental Health During COVID‐19: A Qualitative Study” a qualitative look at the experiences of creative adolescents during COVID‐19 is presented. Zaeske, Harris, Williams, Scheibel, Long, & Kerr engaged in semi‐structured interviews with 25 highly creative high school students. These students reported mental health challenges related to adjustment issues, powerlessness and hopelessness, and isolation.

The article, “The Impact of the COVID‐19 School Closures on Families with Children with Disabilities: A Qualitative Analysis” explored the impact of school closures caused by COVID‐19 on the families of children with disabilities. Lipkin and Creapeu‐Hobson found four major themes that emerged from their interviews with parents: school connection, virtual learning, potential impacts for students, and managing change.

Dolbin‐MacNab offers a unique perspective of the pandemic through the eyes of custodial grandmothers. In the article, “Supporting Grandchildren's Remote Instruction During COVID‐19: Experiences of Custodial Grandmothers” participants shared barriers to success such as difficulties using technology and the poor quality of remote instruction. Dolbin‐MacNab identified multiple stressors related to managing the demands of remote instruction, work, and family.

The article, “The Impact of Impulsivity and School Attendance on COVID‐19 Spread: A Web‐based Cross‐sectional Questionnaire” looked at contributing factors that spread COVID‐19 among high school students. Karadag results suggested that high school attendance and impulsivity scores are positively correlated with the spread of COVID‐19 among teenagers.

Kareem, Thomas, Kumar, and Neelakantan explored the effects of academic grit, intolerance to uncertainty, and student engagement in an online learning environment in India. In their article, “The Role of Classroom Engagement on Academic Grit, Intolerance to Uncertainty and Wellbeing Among School Students During the Second Wave of COVID‐19 Pandemic in India” they found that each of these areas contributed to the success of students involved in online learning.

We know that these contributions will increase our levels of knowledge and skills when it comes to dealing with critical events such as the pandemic caused by COVID‐19. As can be seen, the crisis brought about the need for many professions to be creative and resilient to assist students through the challenges presented by the pandemics. The articles showed examples of how school nurses, school psychologists, educational specialists, teachers, guidance counselors, and others as well as families found ways to address the physical and psychological issues that arose during the pandemic. The assorted research methodologies that were used (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed‐method) reinforces the need to take varying systematic approaches to our quest to find best practice methods supported by evidence. While it is certainly our hope that the world would never have to face such a pandemic threat again, it is reassuring to see how resourceful and resilient we can be as professionals to continue helping others.

McIntosh, C. E. , & Stone, G. E. (2022). Introduction to the special issue: How COVID‐19 has affected students' health, achievement, and mental health. Psychology in the Schools, 1–4. 10.1002/pits.22820