[Does the COVID-19 pandemic take its toll? The influence of COVID-19 induced anxiety on the social-emotional development of 12- to 13-year-olds in Austria].

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, students have been severely affected by measures such as school closures and homeschooling. While it is obvious that these measures influenced students' academic achievement, there is also reason to believe that students' social-emotional development has been impacted.The present study investigates (1) the extent to which students in Austrian secondary school (12 to 13 years old) feel stressed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and (2) how the different levels of stress affect their social-emotional development. The focus of this study is on the development of problematic behavior (internalized and externalized behavior problems) and prosocial behavior. In total, 774 students participated in the study and 650 students took part in three different times of measurement, with the last time of measurement taking place just before the second school closure as a measure in the COVID-19 pandemic.Almost 20% of the respondents show higher stress-levels in terms of COVID-19 induced anxiety. Students with higher stress-levels also display a more negative development in their internalized behavior problems. Likewise, for students' development of externalized behavior problems, a trend in this direction was demonstrated, yet less pronounced. Students who reported a higher stress-level also developed more prosocial behavior. Yet, we could not statistically verify this due to violation of statistical prerequisites.