Student Life During a Pandemic
WAVE 2 Results
December 2020
HOW ARE TEENS EXPERIENCING COVID-19?
How are students feeling about remote and parent involvement in their learning experiences including:
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Changes to school delivery since September re-entry.
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Quarantining because students and/or teachers in their classroom or school tested positive for COVID-19.
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Someone in their household taking a COVID test.
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Socializing with people in their bubble
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respect for physical distancing
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frequency of exposure to news and information about COVID-19
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their concern about impacts on household members, vulnerable populations, country/world health, health system overload, maintaining social ties, and violence in the home
The
Basics
What school district are the students attending?
How old are the students who completed the Wave 2 Survey?
Changes, changes and more changes.
We asked students if their form of schooling changed between September and November (when schools went back to online delivery).
Family
Employment
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, did anyone in your immediate family (people you live with) lose their job or have their work hours reduced?
Almost 4 in 10 students have experienced a change in family finances because of COVID-19.
COVID-19 TESTING
Has anyone in your immediate family (yourself or people you live with) been TESTED for COVID-19?
Has anyone in your immediate family (yourself or people you live with) TESTED POSITIVE for COVID-19?
QUARANTINING
Prior to November 30, did you have to quarantine (i.e., move to online learning) because students and/or teachers in your classroom or school tested positive for COVID 19?
Almost 3 in 10 students had their schooling disrupted by quarantine since September.
Close,
but not too close
Socially responsible socializing
Are students socializing outside of their bubble?
Most students continue to limit socializing outside of their bubble, and the number who said "not at all" to socializing outside their bubble doubled from 7.1% to 15.3%.
Masking in public
Student adherence to masking in public is consistently high. 95% do so "most of the time" or "all of the time."
WHAT ARE STUDENTS STRESS REACTIONS DURING COVID-19?
Child Revised Impact of Events Scale
(CRIES; Weiss & Mamar, 1997):
13-item measure of objective stress as it related to COVID-19
4 Intrusion items
Do you think about it [the event] even when you don’t mean to?
4 Avoidance items
Do you try not to think about it [the event]?
5 Arousal items
Do you have sleep problems?
Total score ranges from 0 to 65
Clinical cutoff score of 30 or above (17 or above on the subscales) having been found to identify children with a diagnosis of PTSD.
How much do students worry about...
How concerned are students about about their PERSONAL HEALTH?
37%
63%
of students are very or extremely concerned about COVID-19 and their health, but
are not at all or only somewhat worried; no change between September and December.
How concerned are youth about FAMILY CONFINEMENT & STRESS?
Overall stress levels have increased. Family Confinement is more of a stressor than the virus.
How much do students worry about...
How concerned are youth about about MAINTAINING SOCIAL TIES?
52.3%
of youth are very or extremely concerned about maintaining Social Ties, a
increase since September.
61%
When students are asked to THINK ABOUT COVID-19, how does it make them feel?
The number of students whose stress reactions exceeded the critical cutoff increased by 3.3.% from September to December.
When students are asked how they feel about COVID-19, how does it affect their thoughts, behaviour, and physical arousal?
Stress reactions are up across all subscales, likely due to COVID fatigue and the many school/social changes.
COVID
Stress
Reactions
HOW ARE STUDENTS FEELING AND BEHAVING?
Behaviour Intervention Monitoring Assessment System
(BIMAS-2; McDougal et al., 2016)
Measuring conduct, negative affect, cognitive/attention, and social and academic functioning
The BIMAS-2 is a brief, repeatable self-report measure that is useful for universal behavioral screening, progress monitoring, outcome assessment, and program evaluation.
How is student mental health and adaptive behaviour?
Overall, mental health and adaptive behaviour remain in the low risk range for all students.
An increase is noted in the percentage of those in High Risk range for negative affect and in Concern range for social functioning.
In the last week, how often did students report?
I was anxious (nervous or worried)...
Wave 1 – 37.9% were never or rarely worried or nervous; 38.1%
were often or very often worried or nervous in last week
Wave 2 – 36.2% were never or rarely worried or nervous; 39.8%
were often or very often worried or nervous in last week
Mental Health Indicators
Increases were noted in all three mental health indicators - conduct, negative affect, and cognitive/attention - but effect size suggest change is minimal.
We asked, "How often did certain behaviours happen in the last week?"
In the last week, how often did students report?
I was sad or withdrawn...
Wave 1 – 53.3% were never or rarely sad or withdrawn;
25.9% were often or very often sad or withdrawn in last week
Wave 2 – 46.9% were never or rarely sad or withdrawn; 32.2% were often
or very often sad or withdrawn in last week
Gender Differences
Female students self-reported more sadness and more worry than males in both Wave 1 and Wave 2.
Females more sad and worried
WHAT INDICATORS OF RESILIENCY WERE REPORTED?
Child and Youth Resilience Measure
(CYRM-R; Jefferies et al., 2013)
Measuring an estimate of resiliency in 3 areas:
Individual (personal skills, peer support, social skills);
Caregiver (physical and psychological caregiving); and
Context (spiritual, education, cultural).
We will review just two items here related to family and friends.
We asked students to consider some of the personal, social, and
contextual strengths that were both available and accessible to them.
Sources of Resiliency
Overall, resiliency levels reported at both waves were similar to normative sample, though peer, social skills, spiritual, and contextual resilience supports were lower (but stable) in both Wave 1 and Wave 2.
