Factors related to students’ psychological distress during COVID-19 disruption across countries

Background

The global outbreak of the novel COVID-19 virus presented a significant threat to students’ well-being across the globe. In this paper, we construct a measure of student psychological distress related to COVID-19 disruption. We then examine the variation in students’ psychological distress as a function of student demographic characteristics, home, school and student factors and compare the results across countries.

Methods

We use item response theory to construct a comparable scale for students’ psychological distress across participating countries. Furthermore, we employ linear regression to explore the association of student characteristics and other student and school factors.

Results

An internationally comparable scale for students’ psychological distress was constructed using the model assuming equal item parameters across countries. This enables us to compare the levels of students’ psychological distress and its relationships with the construct across countries. The most important factors contributing to students’ psychological distress were school support, school belonging, disrupted sleep, difficulties in learning after the disruption and preparedness for future disruptions. In some countries, we find suggestive evidence that boys exhibited lower psychological distress than girls. We do not find any meaningful relationship between home resources and the students’ psychological distress scale.

Conclusions

Students across participating countries expressed negative feelings about schooling and events happening during the disruption and their effects on their future. We find indication that some school and student factors had a significant relationship with students’ psychological distress in many countries. This was especially the case in countries where remote learning took place during the disruption. In addition, differences across countries are found. The key finding is that high psychological distress is present in all countries studied around the world. However, it is important to note that the factors contributing to this distress are not the same everywhere. Therefore potential interventions must consider country specific factors.