essay on impact of covid 19 on students

How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

Students can share how they navigated life during the coronavirus pandemic in a full-length essay or an optional supplement.

Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays

Serious disabled woman concentrating on her work she sitting at her workplace and working on computer at office

Getty Images

Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic.

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many – a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them – and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic – and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

Searching for a college? Get our complete rankings of Best Colleges.

10 Ways to Discover College Essay Ideas

Tags: students , colleges , college admissions , college applications , college search , Coronavirus

2024 Best Colleges

Search for your perfect fit with the U.S. News rankings of colleges and universities.

College Admissions: Get a Step Ahead!

Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S. News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy .

Ask an Alum: Making the Most Out of College

Photos: Pro-Palestinian Student Protests

Aneeta Mathur-Ashton and Avi Gupta April 26, 2024

How to Win a Fulbright Scholarship

Cole Claybourn and Ilana Kowarski April 26, 2024

Honors Colleges and Programs

Sarah Wood April 26, 2024

Find a Job in the Age of AI

Angie Kamath April 25, 2024

Protests Boil Over on College Campuses

Lauren Camera April 22, 2024

Supporting Low-Income College Applicants

Shavar Jeffries April 16, 2024

Supporting Black Women in Higher Ed

Zainab Okolo April 15, 2024

Law Schools With the Highest LSATs

Ilana Kowarski and Cole Claybourn April 11, 2024

Today NAIA, Tomorrow Title IX?

Lauren Camera April 9, 2024

The impact of COVID-19 on student achievement and what it may mean for educators

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, jim soland , jim soland assistant professor, school of education and human development - university of virginia, affiliated research fellow - nwea @jsoland megan kuhfeld , megan kuhfeld senior research scientist - nwea @megankuhfeld beth tarasawa , bt beth tarasawa executive vice president of research - nwea @bethtarasawa angela johnson , aj angela johnson research scientist - nwea erik ruzek , and er erik ruzek research assistant professor, curry school of education - university of virginia jing liu jing liu assistant professor of education policy - university of maryland-college park @drjingliu.

May 27, 2020

This Chalkboard post from May 2020 draws on historical data and past research to forecast the possible impact of COVID-19 school closures on student achievement. With actual data from the 2020-21 school year now available, please see this December 2020 Chalkboard post for an updated analysis of this trend.

Virtually all K-12 students in the United States are currently missing face-to-face instruction due to COVID-19. Many parents and educators thus share a common worry: When the pandemic subsides, kids will return to school with lower achievement. There are also concerns that the gap between high- and low-achieving students will become larger. Given the need to address these concerns, we decided to use prior test scores from millions of students and leverage research on summer learning patterns to make informed projections of what learning loss due to the pandemic might look like. Ultimately, we wanted to know: What sort of learning losses could we expect from the shortened 2019-20 school year?

Answering this question is complicated by the unique circumstances of COVID-19. Current school closures have added to the time that most students already spend at home during the summer months without explicit face-to-face instruction from teachers. Meanwhile, teachers are scrambling to adapt content for an online platform and parents are juggling work responsibilities (if not joblessness) with caring for and educating their own children. Students themselves are faced with isolation, anxiety about a deadly virus, and uncertainty about the future. In so many ways, the current situation is unprecedented for most people alive today.

Yet there are parallels between the current situation and other reasons students miss school that can give us insight into how COVID-19 may affect achievement. This includes research on the effects of out-of-school time on learning due to absenteeism , weather-related school closures (e.g., Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans), and summer vacation . Existing evidence can provide a rough sense of how time out of school due to COVID-19 will affect achievement.

We relied heavily on past precedent when trying to understand how COVID-19 might impact achievement in the short and medium term. We used a national sample of over 5 million students in grades 3-8 who took MAP Growth assessments in 2017-2018. These assessments enable such estimates because MAP Growth is administered multiple times per year, which means test scores are available in fall, winter, and spring such that changes in achievement during the year can be understood and anticipated. We compared typical growth for students who completed a standard-length school year to projections under multiple scenarios. These scenarios were directly informed by out-of-school-time research.

The results are deeply concerning.

The two figures below show projected math and reading learning patterns from the beginning of the 2019-20 school year (before COVID-19 school closures) through the start of the 2020-21 school year. The solid lines represent average trajectories in a typical year with typical growth (estimated based on a prior year’s data) followed by normal patterns of learning loss over the summer (generally, student achievement/learning tends to decline during the summer, though this varies greatly by student). Next, we assume an extended summer loss would occur during the period since schools closed. We refer to this scenario as the “COVID Slide” (represented by the dotted lines). These projections give a sense of how much learning students could lose, though we hope they will be overestimations of loss, given the online instruction and home schooling occurring.

F1 COVID-19 learning loss - mathematics forecast

These preliminary COVID Slide estimates suggest students could begin fall 2020 with roughly 70% of the learning gains in reading from the prior year relative to a typical school year. In mathematics, students may show even smaller learning gains from the previous year, returning with less than 50% of the gains. In lower grades, students may be nearly a full year behind in math compared to what we would observe in normal conditions.

Though not shown in the figures, we produced similar estimates of learning loss based on research showing the effect of being absent on achievement. That is, we simply assumed students’ learning during COVID-19 school closures would be akin to what occurs when students miss school, a large assumption given the online learning and homeschooling now occurring. Results for absenteeism-based projections were often more dire.

We also examined how much more variable achievement might be in the fall—that is, how wide the range in achievement might be between very high and very low-performing students. This range has implications for whether teachers can provide similar content to all students in their classrooms, or if they might need to further differentiate instruction based on a broader range of needs.

f3 Learning loss in 4th and 6th grade in mathematics

The above figures show our estimate of that variability by subject for 4 th and 6 th grade. The shaded areas display the spread in potential outcomes between students who were in the 25 th percentile of summer learning loss (who showed steep declines) and those in the 75 th percentile (who showed flat lines or even small gains during the summer). In mathematics, we see a fair amount of variability in learning rates, though the majority of students show losses over the extended closure and summer period. However, in reading, there is an even wider spread of potential outcomes, with students who are in the 75 th percentile and above showing sizable learning gains during the summer. Further, the figure below shows that extended time out of school may lead to more variability in achievement when students return in the fall relative to a typical year. A wider range of learning needs like the ones suggested by the figure could create greater challenges for teachers.

$f5 math and reading$

The New York Times warns that today’s students could be the “COVID generation.” As we think through our road to recovery, we hope education leaders consider our projections among many data points when preparing to support students returning in the fall. Specifically, our results indicate that:

Students may be substantially behind, especially in mathematics . Thus, teachers of different grade levels may wish to coordinate in order to determine where to start instruction. Educators will also need to find ways to assess students early, either formally or informally, to understand exactly where students are academically.
Students are likely to enter school with more variability in their academic skills than under normal circumstances. Therefore, educators may need to consider ways to further differentiate instruction or provide opportunities for individualized learning.
Students who lose the most during the summer tend to gain the most when back in school, but this may not hold for COVID-19 . Regardless, the ground that students have to make up during the 2020-21 academic year will probably be greater due to COVID-19. Therefore, educators may want to work with students to determine growth rates needed to catch up and set learning goals for the year that are ambitious but obtainable.

Finally, the effects of COVID-19 our study cannot examine may be the ones most worthy of addressing. Prior research on students displaced by Hurricane Katrina indicated that they had difficulty concentrating and often manifested symptoms of depression in the months following the hurricane. Understanding these impacts and how best to support students’ social and emotional needs after the huge disruption of COVID-19 will be essential. Many students may face greater food insecurity, loss of family income, loss of family members to the coronavirus, and fear of catching the virus themselves.

While the scale of the COVID-19 school closures is novel, the inequalities in our school systems are unfortunately anything but new. Our models cannot account for the reality that the crisis is having an unequal impact on our most underserved communities. Nonetheless, we hope these analyses, which synthesize what we know from existing bodies of research, will inform tomorrow’s decision-making.

Covid-19’s Impact on Students’ Academic and Mental Well-Being

The pandemic has revealed—and exacerbated—inequities that hold many students back. Here’s how teachers can help.

The pandemic has shone a spotlight on inequality in America: School closures and social isolation have affected all students, but particularly those living in poverty. Adding to the damage to their learning, a mental health crisis is emerging as many students have lost access to services that were offered by schools.

No matter what form school takes when the new year begins—whether students and teachers are back in the school building together or still at home—teachers will face a pressing issue: How can they help students recover and stay on track throughout the year even as their lives are likely to continue to be disrupted by the pandemic?

New research provides insights about the scope of the problem—as well as potential solutions.

The Achievement Gap Is Likely to Widen

A new study suggests that the coronavirus will undo months of academic gains, leaving many students behind. The study authors project that students will start the new school year with an average of 66 percent of the learning gains in reading and 44 percent of the learning gains in math, relative to the gains for a typical school year. But the situation is worse on the reading front, as the researchers also predict that the top third of students will make gains, possibly because they’re likely to continue reading with their families while schools are closed, thus widening the achievement gap.

To make matters worse, “few school systems provide plans to support students who need accommodations or other special populations,” the researchers point out in the study, potentially impacting students with special needs and English language learners.

Of course, the idea that over the summer students forget some of what they learned in school isn’t new. But there’s a big difference between summer learning loss and pandemic-related learning loss: During the summer, formal schooling stops, and learning loss happens at roughly the same rate for all students, the researchers point out. But instruction has been uneven during the pandemic, as some students have been able to participate fully in online learning while others have faced obstacles—such as lack of internet access—that have hindered their progress.

In the study, researchers analyzed a national sample of 5 million students in grades 3–8 who took the MAP Growth test, a tool schools use to assess students’ reading and math growth throughout the school year. The researchers compared typical growth in a standard-length school year to projections based on students being out of school from mid-March on. To make those projections, they looked at research on the summer slide, weather- and disaster-related closures (such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina), and absenteeism.

The researchers predict that, on average, students will experience substantial drops in reading and math, losing roughly three months’ worth of gains in reading and five months’ worth of gains in math. For Megan Kuhfeld, the lead author of the study, the biggest takeaway isn’t that learning loss will happen—that’s a given by this point—but that students will come back to school having declined at vastly different rates.

“We might be facing unprecedented levels of variability come fall,” Kuhfeld told me. “Especially in school districts that serve families with lots of different needs and resources. Instead of having students reading at a grade level above or below in their classroom, teachers might have kids who slipped back a lot versus kids who have moved forward.”

Disproportionate Impact on Students Living in Poverty and Students of Color

Horace Mann once referred to schools as the “great equalizers,” yet the pandemic threatens to expose the underlying inequities of remote learning. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center analysis , 17 percent of teenagers have difficulty completing homework assignments because they do not have reliable access to a computer or internet connection. For Black students, the number spikes to 25 percent.

“There are many reasons to believe the Covid-19 impacts might be larger for children in poverty and children of color,” Kuhfeld wrote in the study. Their families suffer higher rates of infection, and the economic burden disproportionately falls on Black and Hispanic parents, who are less likely to be able to work from home during the pandemic.

Although children are less likely to become infected with Covid-19, the adult mortality rates, coupled with the devastating economic consequences of the pandemic, will likely have an indelible impact on their well-being.

Impacts on Students’ Mental Health

That impact on well-being may be magnified by another effect of school closures: Schools are “the de facto mental health system for many children and adolescents,” providing mental health services to 57 percent of adolescents who need care, according to the authors of a recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics . School closures may be especially disruptive for children from lower-income families, who are disproportionately likely to receive mental health services exclusively from schools.

“The Covid-19 pandemic may worsen existing mental health problems and lead to more cases among children and adolescents because of the unique combination of the public health crisis, social isolation, and economic recession,” write the authors of that study.

A major concern the researchers point to: Since most mental health disorders begin in childhood, it is essential that any mental health issues be identified early and treated. Left untreated, they can lead to serious health and emotional problems. In the short term, video conferencing may be an effective way to deliver mental health services to children.

Mental health and academic achievement are linked, research shows. Chronic stress changes the chemical and physical structure of the brain, impairing cognitive skills like attention, concentration, memory, and creativity. “You see deficits in your ability to regulate emotions in adaptive ways as a result of stress,” said Cara Wellman, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University in a 2014 interview . In her research, Wellman discovered that chronic stress causes the connections between brain cells to shrink in mice, leading to cognitive deficiencies in the prefrontal cortex.

While trauma-informed practices were widely used before the pandemic, they’re likely to be even more integral as students experience economic hardships and grieve the loss of family and friends. Teachers can look to schools like Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, as a model for trauma-informed practices .

3 Ways Teachers Can Prepare

When schools reopen, many students may be behind, compared to a typical school year, so teachers will need to be very methodical about checking in on their students—not just academically but also emotionally. Some may feel prepared to tackle the new school year head-on, but others will still be recovering from the pandemic and may still be reeling from trauma, grief, and anxiety.

Here are a few strategies teachers can prioritize when the new school year begins:

Focus on relationships first. Fear and anxiety about the pandemic—coupled with uncertainty about the future—can be disruptive to a student’s ability to come to school ready to learn. Teachers can act as a powerful buffer against the adverse effects of trauma by helping to establish a safe and supportive environment for learning. From morning meetings to regular check-ins with students, strategies that center around relationship-building will be needed in the fall.
Strengthen diagnostic testing. Educators should prepare for a greater range of variability in student learning than they would expect in a typical school year. Low-stakes assessments such as exit tickets and quizzes can help teachers gauge how much extra support students will need, how much time should be spent reviewing last year’s material, and what new topics can be covered.
Differentiate instruction—particularly for vulnerable students. For the vast majority of schools, the abrupt transition to online learning left little time to plan a strategy that could adequately meet every student’s needs—in a recent survey by the Education Trust, only 24 percent of parents said that their child’s school was providing materials and other resources to support students with disabilities, and a quarter of non-English-speaking students were unable to obtain materials in their own language. Teachers can work to ensure that the students on the margins get the support they need by taking stock of students’ knowledge and skills, and differentiating instruction by giving them choices, connecting the curriculum to their interests, and providing them multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning.

Share full article

Supported by

‘When Normal Life Stopped’: College Essays Reflect a Turbulent Year

This year’s admissions essays became a platform for high school seniors to reflect on the pandemic, race and loss.

By Anemona Hartocollis

This year perhaps more than ever before, the college essay has served as a canvas for high school seniors to reflect on a turbulent and, for many, sorrowful year. It has been a psychiatrist’s couch, a road map to a more hopeful future, a chance to pour out intimate feelings about loneliness and injustice.

In response to a request from The New York Times, more than 900 seniors submitted the personal essays they wrote for their college applications. Reading them is like a trip through two of the biggest news events of recent decades: the devastation wrought by the coronavirus, and the rise of a new civil rights movement.

In the wake of the high-profile deaths of Black people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers, students shared how they had wrestled with racism in their own lives. Many dipped their feet into the politics of protest, finding themselves strengthened by their activism, yet sometimes conflicted.

And in the midst of the most far-reaching pandemic in a century, they described the isolation and loss that have pervaded every aspect of their lives since schools suddenly shut down a year ago. They sought to articulate how they have managed while cut off from friends and activities they had cultivated for years.

To some degree, the students were responding to prompts on the applications, with their essays taking on even more weight in a year when many colleges waived standardized test scores and when extracurricular activities were wiped out.

This year the Common App, the nation’s most-used application, added a question inviting students to write about the impact of Covid-19 on their lives and educations. And universities like Notre Dame and Lehigh invited applicants to write about their reactions to the death of George Floyd, and how that inspired them to make the world a better place.

The coronavirus was the most common theme in the essays submitted to The Times, appearing in 393 essays, more than 40 percent. Next was the value of family, coming up in 351 essays, but often in the context of other issues, like the pandemic and race. Racial justice and protest figured in 342 essays.

“We find with underrepresented populations, we have lots of people coming to us with a legitimate interest in seeing social justice established, and they are looking to see their college as their training ground for that,” said David A. Burge, vice president for enrollment management at George Mason University.

Family was not the only eternal verity to appear. Love came up in 286 essays; science in 128; art in 110; music in 109; and honor in 32. Personal tragedy also loomed large, with 30 essays about cancer alone.

Some students resisted the lure of current events, and wrote quirky essays about captaining a fishing boat on Cape Cod or hosting dinner parties. A few wrote poetry. Perhaps surprisingly, politics and the 2020 election were not of great interest.

Most students expect to hear where they were admitted by the end of March or beginning of April. Here are excerpts from a few of the essays, edited for length.

Nandini Likki

Nandini, a senior at the Seven Hills School in Cincinnati, took care of her father after he was hospitalized with Covid-19. It was a “harrowing” but also rewarding time, she writes.

When he came home, my sister and I had to take care of him during the day while my mom went to work. We cooked his food, washed his dishes, and excessively cleaned the house to make sure we didn’t get the disease as well.

It was an especially harrowing time in my life and my mental health suffered due to the amount of stress I was under.

However, I think I grew emotionally and matured because of the experience. My sister and I became more responsible as we took on more adult roles in the family. I grew even closer to my dad and learned how to bond with him in different ways, like using Netflix Party to watch movies together. Although the experience isolated me from most of my friends who couldn’t relate to me, my dad’s illness taught me to treasure my family even more and cherish the time I spend with them.

Nandini has been accepted at Case Western and other schools.

Grace Sundstrom

Through her church in Des Moines, Grace, a senior at Roosevelt High School, began a correspondence with Alden, a man who was living in a nursing home and isolated by the pandemic.

As our letters flew back and forth, I decided to take a chance and share my disgust about the treatment of people of color at the hands of police officers. To my surprise, Alden responded with the same sentiments and shared his experience marching in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Here we were, two people generations apart, finding common ground around one of the most polarizing subjects in American history.

When I arrived at my first Black Lives Matter protest this summer, I was greeted by the voices of singing protesters. The singing made me think of a younger Alden, stepping off the train at Union Station in Washington, D.C., to attend the 1963 March on Washington.

Grace has been admitted to Trinity University in San Antonio and is waiting to hear from others.

Ahmed AlMehri

Ahmed, who attends the American School of Kuwait, wrote of growing stronger through the death of his revered grandfather from Covid-19.

Fareed Al-Othman was a poet, journalist and, most importantly, my grandfather. Sept. 8, 2020, he fell victim to Covid-19. To many, he’s just a statistic — one of the “inevitable” deaths. But to me, he was, and continues to be, an inspiration. I understand the frustration people have with the restrictions, curfews, lockdowns and all of the tertiary effects of these things.

But I, personally, would go through it all a hundred times over just to have my grandfather back.

For a long time, things felt as if they weren’t going to get better. Balancing the grief of his death, school and the upcoming college applications was a struggle; and my stress started to accumulate. Covid-19 has taken a lot from me, but it has forced me to grow stronger and persevere. I know my grandfather would be disappointed if I had let myself use his death as an excuse to slack off.

Ahmed has been accepted by the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Miami and is waiting to hear from others.

Mina Rowland

Mina, who lives in a shelter in San Joaquin County, Calif., wrote of becoming homeless in middle school.

Despite every day that I continue to face homelessness, I know that I have outlets for my pain and anguish.

Most things that I’ve had in life have been destroyed, stolen, lost, or taken, but art and poetry shall be with me forever.

The stars in “Starry Night” are my tenacity and my hope. Every time I am lucky enough to see the stars, I am reminded of how far I’ve come and how much farther I can go.

After taking a gap year, Mina and her twin sister, Mirabell, have been accepted at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and are waiting on others.

Christine Faith Cabusay

Christine, a senior at Stuyvesant High School in New York, decided to break the isolation of the pandemic by writing letters to her friends.

How often would my friends receive something in the mail that was not college mail, a bill, or something they ordered online? My goal was to make opening a letter an experience. I learned calligraphy and Spencerian script so it was as if an 18th-century maiden was writing to them from her parlor on a rainy day.

Washing lines in my yard held an ever-changing rainbow of hand-recycled paper.

With every letter came a painting of something that I knew they liked: fandoms, animals, music, etc. I sprayed my favorite perfume on my signature on every letter because I read somewhere that women sprayed perfume on letters overseas to their partners in World War II; it made writing letters way more romantic (even if it was just to my close friends).

Christine is still waiting to hear from schools.

Alexis Ihezue

Her father’s death from complications of diabetes last year caused Alexis, a student at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology in Lawrenceville, Ga., to consider the meaning of love.

And in the midst of my grief swallowing me from the inside out, I asked myself when I loved him most, and when I knew he loved me. It’s nothing but brief flashes, like bits and pieces of a dream. I hear him singing “Fix You” by Coldplay on our way home, his hands across the table from me at our favorite wing spot that we went to weekly after school, him driving me home in the middle of a rainstorm, his last message to me congratulating me on making it to senior year.

It’s me finding a plastic spoon in the sink last week and remembering the obnoxious way he used to eat. I see him in bursts and flashes.

A myriad of colors and experiences. And I think to myself, ‘That’s what it is.’ It’s a second. It’s a minute. That’s what love is. It isn’t measured in years, but moments.

Alexis has been accepted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is waiting on others.

Ivy Wanjiku

She and her mother came to America “with nothing but each other and $100,” writes Ivy, who was born in Kenya and attends North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, Ga.

I am a triple threat. Foreign, black, female. From the dirt roads and dust that covered the attire of my ancestors who worshiped the soil, I have sprouted new beginnings for generations.

But the question arises; will that generation live to see its day?

Melanin mistaken as a felon, my existence is now a hashtag that trends as often as my rights, a facade at best, a lie in truth. I now know more names of dead blacks than I do the amendments of the Constitution.

Ivy is going to Emory University in Atlanta on full scholarship and credits her essay with helping her get in.

Mary Clare Marshall

The isolation of the pandemic became worse when Mary Clare, a student at Sacred Heart Greenwich in Connecticut, realized that her mother had cancer.

My parents acted like everything was normal, but there were constant reminders of her diagnosis. After her first chemo appointment, I didn’t acknowledge the change. It became real when she came downstairs one day without hair.

No one said anything about the change. It just happened. And it hit me all over again. My mom has cancer.

Even after going to Catholic school for my whole life, I couldn’t help but be angry at God. I felt myself experiencing immense doubt in everything I believe in. Unable to escape my house for any small respite, I felt as though I faced the reality of my mom’s cancer totally alone.

Mary Clare has been admitted to the University of Virginia and is waiting on other schools.

Nora Frances Kohnhorst

Nora, a student at the High School of American Studies at Lehman College in New York, was always “a serial dabbler,” but found commitment in a common pandemic hobby.

In March, when normal life stopped, I took up breadmaking. This served a practical purpose. The pandemic hit my neighborhood in Queens especially hard, and my parents were afraid to go to the store. This forced my family to come up with ways to avoid shopping. I decided I would learn to make sourdough using recipes I found online. Initially, some loaves fell flat, others were too soft inside, and still more spread into strange blobs.

I reminded myself that the bread didn’t need to be perfect, just edible.

It didn’t matter what it looked like; there was no one to see or eat it besides my brother and parents. They depended on my new activity, and that dependency prevented me from repeating the cycle of trying a hobby, losing steam, and moving on to something new.

Nora has been admitted to SUNY Binghamton and the University of Vermont and is waiting to hear from others.

Gracie Yong Ying Silides

Gracie, a student at Greensboro Day School in North Carolina, recalls the “red thread” of a Chinese proverb and wonders where it will take her next.

Destiny has led me into a mysterious place these last nine months: isolation. At a time in my life when I am supposed to be branching out, the Covid pandemic seems to have trimmed those branches back to nubs. I have had to research colleges without setting foot on them. I’ve introduced myself to strangers through essays, videos, and test scores.

I would have fallen apart over this if it weren’t for my faith.

In Hebrews 11:1, Paul says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” My life has shown me that the red thread of destiny guides me where I need to go. Though it might sound crazy, I trust that the red thread is guiding me to the next phase of my journey.

Gracie has been accepted to St. Olaf College, Ithaca College and others.

Levi, a student at Westerville Central High School in Ohio, wrestles with the conflict between her admiration for her father, a police officer, and the negative image of the police.

Since I was a small child I have watched my father put on his dark blue uniform to go to work protecting and serving others. He has always been my hero. As the African-American daughter of a police officer, I believe in what my father stands for, and I am so proud of him because he is not only my protector, but the protector of those I will likely never know. When I was young, I imagined him always being a hero to others, just as he was to me. How could anyone dislike him??? However, as I have gotten older and watched television and social media depict the brutalization of African-Americans, at the hands of police, I have come to a space that is uncomfortable.

I am certain there are others like me — African-Americans who love their police officer family members, yet who despise what the police are doing to African-Americans.

I know that I will not be able to rectify this problem alone, but I want to be a part of the solution where my paradox no longer exists.

Levi has been accepted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and is waiting to hear from others.

Henry Thomas Egan

When Henry, a student at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, attended a protest after the death of George Floyd, it was the words of a Nina Simone song that stayed with him.

I had never been to a protest before; neither my school, nor my family, nor my city are known for being outspoken. Thousands lined the intersection in all four directions, chanting, “He couldn’t breathe! George Floyd couldn’t breathe!”

In my head, thoughts of hunger, injustice, and silence swirled around.

In my ears, I heard lyrics playing on a speaker nearby, a song by Nina Simone: “To be young, gifted, and Black!” The experience was exceptionally sad and affirming and disorienting at the same time, and when the police arrived and started firing tear gas, I left. A lot has happened in my life over these last four years. I am left not knowing how to sort all of this out and what paths I should follow.

Henry has not yet heard back from colleges.

Anna Valades

Anna, a student at Coronado High School in California, pondered how children learned racism from their parents.

“She said I wasn’t invited to her birthday party because I was black,” my sister had told my mom, devastated, after coming home from third grade as the only classmate who had not been invited to the party. Although my sister is not black, she is a dark-skinned Mexican, and brown-skinned people in Mexico are thought of as being a lower class and commonly referred to as “negros.” When my mom found out who had been discriminating against my sister, she later informed me that the girl’s mother had also bullied my mom about her skin tone when she was in elementary school in Mexico City.

Through this situation, I learned the impact people’s upbringing and the values they are taught at home have on their beliefs and, therefore, their actions.

Anna has been accepted at Northeastern University and is waiting to hear from others.

Research was contributed by Asmaa Elkeurti, Aidan Gardiner, Pierre-Antoine Louis and Jake Frankenfield.

Anemona Hartocollis is a national correspondent, covering higher education. She is also the author of the book, “Seven Days of Possibilities: One Teacher, 24 Kids, and the Music That Changed Their Lives Forever.” More about Anemona Hartocollis

Reference Manager
Simple TEXT file

People also looked at

Original research article, a retrospective analysis of the perceived impact of the covid-19 pandemic on systemic barriers to success for university student parents.

1 Department of Psychology, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, United States
2 General Engineering Program, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, United States
3 Center for Population Studies, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, United States
4 Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, United States
5 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, United States

Introduction: Student parents, both undergraduate and graduate, face the difficult task of balancing their studies and raising children, and they are a population often neglected or forgotten by higher education administration. The COVID-19 pandemic enhanced already present issues student parents face through the implementation of virtual schooling, increased daycare costs and closings, staying home with sick children, and a lack of local support system, among others. Further, many student parents are graduate students who are performing research that requires physical campus space and equipment to fulfill their educational requirements, and their research progress come to a halt when the country locked down.

Methods: This study explored the struggles student parents faced prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, what issues the pandemic exacerbated, and what new problems have since arisen. Participants completed surveys assessing the consequences of being a student parent during the pandemic, coping resources available to them, the effect of being a student parent during the pandemic on their mental health, and demographic information.

Results: Prevalent themes include substantial declines in mental health, feelings of inadequacy in regards to both their parenting and academic abilities compared to their non-student parent peers, and a striking lack of resources or acknowledgement from their institution.

Discussion: The survey results are framed within the social-ecological model to better understand the systemic implications of student parent conditions. Finally, we formulate a set of recommendations to higher education administrations to inform them about the unique struggles student parents face and suggest strategies for mitigation.

Introduction

The group of students within higher education that also navigate the difficult role of parent are a relatively understudied group. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a growing literature on higher education student parents ( Wainwright and Marandet, 2010 ; Moreau and Kerner, 2015 ; Moreau, 2016a , b ). This literature articulates several sets of challenges faced by student parents, namely in the United States and Great Britain. Broadly, the literature describes a subset of the higher education student population that faces situations unlike that of their non-student parent counterparts where they perform the challenging task of balancing their studies and raising children ( Brooks, 2012 ; Moreau and Kerner, 2015 ; Sallee, 2015 ). The addition of the COVID-19 pandemic introduced many new problems for student parents and exacerbated existing systemic challenges. Yet, a limited number of studies have emerged exploring the differential impact of COVID-19 on this marginalized group of students ( Abbas et al., 2021 ; Lin et al., 2022 ; Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ; Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ; Sallee and Yates, 2023 ). These studies focus on student parent experiences at the height of the pandemic. This article hopes to explore, in tandem with these previous studies, the broad set of challenges experienced by student parents, but over the course of COVID-19 and the brief “post”-pandemic period as students were being reintroduced to campuses.

Literature review

The population of students who are also parents might seem small to non-student parent counterparts and higher education administration due to their lack of visibility, but literature shows that “approximately 3.8 million (22% of all) undergraduate students in the US are raising children” ( Lin et al., 2022 ; Todd, 2023 ). The literature demonstrates that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of student parents struggled to cope with existing financial insecurity due to the cost of raising children in the current economic climate ( Gerrard and Roberts, 2006 ; Gault et al., 2018 ). One source reports that over two thirds of the student parent population live in or near poverty ( Cruse et al., 2020 ), demonstrating the financial strain experienced by student parents. Further, the literature also confirms that the majority of student parents experience financial strain due to childcare costs ( Demeules and Hamer, 2013 ; Long, 2017 ; Sallee and Cox, 2019 ; Ajayi et al., 2022 ; Sallee and Yates, 2023 ). Graduate student parents at Stanford faced an existing affordability crisis even before the pandemic ( The Stanford Daily, 2020 ), and the addition of the pandemic served to worsen the existing insecurity.

In addition to financial insecurity plaguing student parents, the literature also confirms a lack of resources in place to aid student parents with the unique issues they face. Historically speaking, higher education institutions are designed to serve students whose primary role is being a student and who likely does not have competing priorities of that magnitude ( Medved and Heisler, 2002 ; Roy et al., 2018 ; Manze et al., 2021 ; Reed et al., 2021 ). The literature finds that compared to traditional college students, student parents are navigating systems that fail to account for the diversity of their needs ( Estes, 2011 ; Brooks, 2013 ; Manze et al., 2021 ; Ajayi et al., 2022 ; Briegel et al., 2023 ; Sallee and Yates, 2023 ). Further, in a study conducted of student mothers, it was found that “89% of students could not identify the support available to student parents” and the department chairs themselves could not identify any university services in place to help student parents cope ( Holm et al., 2015 ). The lack of resources available to student parents both before and during the pandemic places student parents at a disadvantage from their non-student parent counterparts, putting them at risk of falling behind academically. In cases where resources are available, the translation of their availability to student parents is not well-defined or communicated. Lin finds that “approximately 75% of student parents are uninformed that their financial aid could be increased to account for childcare costs” ( Lin et al., 2022 ). The existence of resources for student parents alone is not enough to mitigate the challenges they face; they must also be clearly and widely communicated with student parents.

Mental health is also a particular challenge for student parents. While attending college or university can be difficult for any student, and mental health is of particular concern, the additional stress of parenting creates unique and acute mental health challenges for student parents ( Brooks, 2015 ; Abbas et al., 2021 ; Cho et al., 2021 ). This stress has many sources, but unique to student parents is the guilt of prioritizing one’s needs above social expectations of parenting, particularly for mothers ( Brooks, 2015 ; Moreau, 2016a , b ).

The pandemic greatly disrupted the lives of student parents and, in addition to exacerbating those already articulated in the literature, introduced new hurdles for student parents. The transition to remote activities during the pandemic forced student parents to juggle working from home with taking care of their children ( Moreau and Kerner, 2015 ; Lin et al., 2022 ; Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ; Todd, 2023 ). Due to the loss of uninterrupted, designated work time while working from home, student parents often felt guilty for not spending enough time with their children or on their work ( Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ; Todd, 2023 ). Student parents also struggled finding childcare during this time as daycare closures were frequent occurrences, and this greatly impacted the academic performance of many student parents ( Sallee and Yates, 2023 ). Further, the burden typically falls more on student mothers rather than student fathers ( Sallee and Yates, 2023 ). The literature finds that “instead of writing papers, [student mothers] are likely to devote time to homeschooling children and doing household chores” ( Staniscuaski et al., 2020 ).

The goal of this research is to explore the unique barriers student parents faced in the COVID-19 pandemic context and provide some nuance to existing recommendations for higher education systems for supporting these student parents in a post-pandemic state. The literature demonstrates a clear call to action in order to help student parents navigate the pre-existing challenges they experience and provide targeted support to help them cope with the unforeseen challenges introduced by the pandemic. The motivation behind these measures is to not only improve the academic success of student parents, but also the overall well-being of student parents by prioritizing their needs.

Social-ecological model

A conceptual framework that will aid in understanding the context of student parent experiences during the pandemic is the social-ecological model introduced in 1979 by Bronfenbrenner (1979) . The social-ecological model is broken into four overlapping categories—individual, relationship, community, and societal factors—in order to understand how the social environments of individuals affect each other in a dynamic fashion and how those emergent interconnections shape one’s development ( Bronfenbrenner, 1979 ; ATSDR, 2015 ; Kilanowski, 2017 ). On the individual level, personal history and biological factors are viewed in order to help understand why a person feels or acts a certain way ( Kilanowski, 2017 ). The identity of the participant is used in order to help fill this space with important information such as their age, income, educational background, gender, ethnic affiliation, social class, and religious affiliation. For the purposes of this study, the individual is the student parent. The relationship category focuses on how important close relationships are to an individual and how they can affect a person’s response to a situation ( Kilanowski, 2017 ). For student parents, this includes their familial relationships, such as to their child, spouse/partner, and other family members; their peer relationships, such as to friends or other student parents; and their academic relationships, such as to their professors, academic mentors, and research advisors ( Briegel et al., 2023 ). The community level includes the broader areas in which an individual has these social relationships, such as schools, neighborhoods, workplaces, and religious places ( Kilanowski, 2017 ). A student parent’s community may look vastly different from another student parent depending on the resources and relationships they have. In theory, there are groups of student parents within various institutions that would constitute a “student parent community”; however, the lack of organization and knowledge of this student population by higher education administrations is limited at best, rendering this community invisible in many instances ( Todd, 2023 ). The last category of this model includes broad societal factors that influence an individual, such as healthcare, finances, political policies, and education that can affect how a person makes decisions regarding their community, relationships, and individual goals ( Kilanowski, 2017 ). For a student parent, this could include perceptions of student parents by society, traditional gender roles, laws and policies in higher education, and government regulations regarding the COVID-19 pandemic ( Briegel et al., 2023 ; Sallee and Yates, 2023 ).

The social-ecological model (SEM) correlates well with this research because each branch is incorporated into the participants’ lifestyles and have an interconnected influence on the outcome of the other ( Ajayi et al., 2022 ). Each student parent has individual identities that caused them to be affected by the pandemic mentally and have different experiences from their peers. They also have relationships with their significant others, professors, advisors, daycare teachers, and family members that can influence mental, physical, and social shifts that propagate to multiple areas of their lives ( Ajayi et al., 2022 ). Student parents are a community itself, but each student also belongs in a community uniquely defined by their social and familial relationships, background, culture, and personal experiences ( Sallee and Yates, 2023 ). In addition, societal factors in the student parents’ lives shift their ability to adapt to the changes that they had to face when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, such as parents contracting COVID-19, needing to take care of a sick loved one, or the resources available to them ( Todd, 2023 ). Educationally, these student parents had to change their methods and environment for learning ( Todd, 2023 ). Further, multiple studies surrounding student populations utilize the SEM to contextualize the results of their studies. Lisnyj et al. used the SEM to explore which factors affect post-secondary students’ stress and academic success ( Lisnyj et al., 2021 ). The SEM has also been used to explore how different levels of the model affect COVID-19 infection preventative behaviors ( Vilme et al., 2022 ). Another study that has ties between the SEM and college students breaks down the barriers and enablers to a healthy diet in college students into the individual level, social level, and community levels in order to explain how these factors affect a college student’s experience ( Sogari et al., 2018 ). In this study, the SEM will serve as a platform for understanding the complex emergence of barriers that arose for student parents during the pandemic and for formulating recommendations to higher education officials to aid student parents under “normal” conditions but also those in times of crisis.

Materials and methods

This mixed-methods exploratory study utilized a community-based participatory approach to investigating student parents’ views and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and their return to campus. The research team first engaged with key stakeholders on the university campus, namely student parent campus leaders in a focus group format. During this engagement, student parent leaders expressed an interest in collecting data that would help them and university administration understand key concerns or challenges student parents navigated on campus and how those challenges might be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. During these focus groups, student parent leaders and the research team developed the research questions that ultimately shaped the project. This engagement was the basis for the preliminary survey developed by the research team. The survey was vetted by student parents before deployment.

This specific combination of mixed methods—focus group followed by survey—has been employed successfully by other studies of student parents before and during the pandemic. This approach allows a research team to engage a relatively small population in a robust way and to be inclusive of their limited ability to commit time to participating in a study ( King, 2022 ; Briegel et al., 2023 ; Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ; Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ; Todd, 2023 ). Todd purports that it can be “challenging to engage with an ‘invisible’ cohort,” and there are “no provisions at the institutional level to gather data on student parents” ( Todd, 2023 ). In addition, online surveys enable data collection due to irregularities in childcare availability due to pandemic restrictions and/or illness and grant flexibility in finishing the survey due to school and parent responsibilities ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ; Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ). Thus, our study approach was used to yield a complementary view of student parents’ various experiences while providing an inclusive and accessible format to accommodate their unique needs ( Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004 ; Shorten and Smith, 2017 ; Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ).

Survey design and administration

The survey, co-developed by the research team and student parents, was anonymized and distributed online via Qualtrics. The online approach was deemed most prudent during the COVID-19 pandemic as it also provided survey participants a flexible timeline for completion given the many demands of their multiple roles ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ; Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ; Todd, 2023 ). Anonymity was important to mitigate feelings of pressure or judgment by having someone watch them complete a task or answer questions ( Su, 2022 ). Also based on previous literature focused on student parents, as well as stakeholder engagement, anonymity was crucial given the real or perceived potential consequences of speaking out about unfair or unjust practices within the student parents’ working and learning environments ( Su, 2022 ).

The survey was comprised of 35 questions broken down into five categories: (1) Demographics, (2) Effect on Mental Health, (3) Pandemic Consequences, (4) Coping Resources, and (5) Recommendations. These categories were based on engagement with stakeholders and consultation of the existing literature on student parent experiences. The project received IRB-approval from University of Mississippi’s Institutional Review Board (protocol 22x-096).

Demographic questions included: participants’ age, relationship status, self-reported gender, ethnicity, employment status, family’s COVID-19 vaccination status, and current educational level (undergraduate or graduate level). The number of children and the individual’s family financial status were also gathered during this portion of the survey.

The Effects on Mental Health section gave the participants an opportunity to describe how the pandemic affected their mental health. The Pandemic Consequences section focused on changes student parents experienced in childcare decision-making and how they handled their school obligations due to the pandemic. Uniquely, and importantly, this section sought to collect data to compare experiences at different snapshots in time across a novel global pandemic, including during the height of the pandemic and upon return to in-person operations. The next set of questions focused on coping resources student parents received or did not receive while being a student parent. The final section of the survey was a qualitative open-ended question for student parents to identify potential solutions or provide additional context that might further clarify their responses.

It took participants between 10 and 15 min to complete the survey, and there was no financial compensation involved for completing the survey. Given the dearth of literature on the impact of COVID-19 on student parents, this survey is exploratory. In order to reach a broad audience in an online only environment, the survey was administered via the University of Mississippi’s email system. Additionally, the survey was sent to several other [Southeastern Conference: athletic conference] schools for consideration by the student affairs personnel for dissemination to their student body, as well as through the Twitter social media platform. Inclusion criteria for the survey included: (a) being 18 years of age or older, (b) being a student parent, and (c) being willing to completely finish the survey. If a respondent selected that they were under the age of 18 and/or not a student parent, then the survey automatically ended for them. For the purposes of this study, “student parent” was defined as anyone who currently had a minor dependent living with them.

Analysis of survey data

The small sample size and the exploratory, rather than explanatory, nature of the study supported the use of descriptive statistics ( Maguire and Delahunt, 2017 ). Qualitative responses were analyzed using iterative qualitative thematic coding within the context of the social-ecological model. The qualitative thematic coding approach identified patterns across the qualitative survey responses to provide a systematic interpretation of participants’ experiences and perceptions ( Tarzia et al., 2023 ). The open-ended responses were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six stages of thematic analysis: familiarization with the data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and writing the report ( Braun and Clarke, 2006 ). Illustrative quotes from the qualitative portion of the survey that speak directly to survey responses were incorporated into the results section for that set of questions.

SEM’s use to guide inquiry is documented in several cases related to students and higher education ( Jack et al., 2019 ; Dotson et al., 2022 ; Wright, 2022 ). Jack et al. used SEM to guide inquiry, thematic coding, and analysis to provide insight into the perceptions of refugee student well-being within higher education, as well as for the professionals working with them ( Jack et al., 2019 ). Wright investigated sexual assertiveness of undergraduate women in a southeastern US higher education institution, and Dotson et al. performed a qualitative study on US college youth online learning during the pandemic, both using an SEM guided, qualitative thematic coding approach ( Dotson et al., 2022 ; Wright, 2022 ). Based on this previous use of SEM-guided analysis and qualitative thematic coding, we employed this complimentary framework and analytical approach to understand student parents’ experiences and perceptions during the pandemic.

Sample population

The survey received 35 responses, ranging from 18 to 40+ years of age. Because the survey was anonymous, the research team was unable to determine the kinds of institutions represented in the survey. Responses were collected over 3 months from November 2021 to January 2022. The majority of respondents were female ( N = 34) and white ( N = 29). Educational backgrounds varied. Of the responses received, ten participants had a Bachelor’s degree, 22 had a Master’s degree, and one had recently received their Doctoral degree. All but one of the participants was currently enrolled in their university as a graduate student. Twenty-three of the 35 participants were not employed outside the university, and 23 were receiving an assistantship of some kind.

Most participants had one child ( N = 21), while 14 participants had 2 or more children. Child ages ranged from infants (<1 year) to preteens (11 years). Thirty-three respondents were married or in a domestic or long-term partnership. Household incomes ranged from 10,000 USD to 350,000 USD. Only 3 respondents stated that their school-age children qualify for free or reduced lunch, and 2 of the respondents indicated that their family qualifies for SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program).

When asked about their COVID-19 vaccination status, 34 of the respondents stated that they have received the vaccine, and one selected that they preferred not to answer. We received the same responses to the question of whether or not their partner was vaccinated. Most respondents stated when their child is old enough, they would be willing to vaccinate their child as well with timing varying between when the vaccine was approved for emergency authorization versus full FDA approval.

Study limitations

There were only 35 respondents, but given the challenge with engaging marginalized groups in higher education, the research team expected low participation ( Todd, 2023 ). Additionally, the sample was not socioeconomically diverse, as most respondents were married and had a substantial income. However, many points of stress and questions about parenting traversed socioeconomic lines. The exploratory nature of the study, the sample characteristics, and low response rate make this study ungeneralizable, but still offers important insights into student parents during the COVID-19 pandemic and could serve as a starting point for future research.

Results and discussion

Pandemic consequences.

Student parents faced many challenges prior to the pandemic, and the emergence of COVID-19 served to exacerbate these challenges and present new obstacles. With daycare closures and quarantines a regular occurrence, student parents were faced with the difficult task of balancing academic roles with parental roles during their usual hours of work. From the survey results, student parents reported that while working from home, they were less productive because they did not have designated, uninterrupted work time and also felt that they had to work outside of regular office hours (Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) due to balancing childcare in order to meet their goals. Holmes and Nikiforidou found that 30% of their student parent respondents had to work during “anti-social” hours ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ). Moreover, student parents also reported that they believe their quality of work (course work, research, etc.) has suffered due to lack of childcare at home. Many student parents suggested that the most difficult part of working from home during the pandemic was balancing childcare with their academic work. One participant writes,

“Working while teaching children from home was not just unproductive, it was impossible. I have neurotypical children and a neurodivergent, special needs child. Helping them with schoolwork put me in the position of being a special education teacher, a regular teacher, IT support, therapist, mom, and PhD candidate. I am an enormously motivated, efficient person generally, but I do not know anyone who could have effectively balanced all of this.”

Other student parents agreed with this sentiment and felt that they could not devote themselves to one role, but instead had to take on multiple roles while working remotely with children at home. Because of this, student parents faced consequences in their relationships with those around them during the pandemic. The survey results revealed that many student parents felt a shift in their parenting styles and a change in their relationship with their children during this time. One participant writes,

“I am more reactive and less patient and working while my daughter was at home felt negligent”

when describing how working from home affected a relationship.

Many participants also reported that the COVID-19 pandemic would delay their thesis/dissertation completion and expected graduation. Further, a Likert scale question revealed that the majority of student parent respondents “somewhat agree” or “strongly agree” that working in academia during the pandemic made them consider a career change. This, unfortunately, aligns with and accents trends of females leaving academia upon reaching the stage of parenthood ( Mirick and Wladkowski, 2018 ; Fulweiler et al., 2021 ). Together, these multiple exacerbations by the pandemic clearly impacted student parents not only in the moment, but also had the potential to change the trajectory of their career.

While the scope of this research does not seek to analyze the gender roles among student parents with spouses/partners, gender roles did also affect student parents during this time. Holmes and Nikiforidou reported that nearly 80% of their student parent respondents had perceptions that mothers and fathers experienced the pandemic lockdowns differently, with their most frequent response being that mothers experienced more pressures during lockdown than fathers ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ). In our study, a student mother found most difficulty with:

“having to take on the brunt of online schooling and child care because of gender norms in our household but also mostly because my spouse is the one with a job that pays the bills, my stipend does not, so his work took precedence over mine, every time. I had to drop a class then make it up over the summer. I was not able to submit to any conferences or complete research outside of class. I wasn't able to read or give fully to any of my courses. I have been set back at least a year of graduation, which means finding funding for an extra year. It was difficult to focus on my schoolwork while my kids were struggling with school and mental health issues from being home.”

One benefit reported by student parents of working from home was that less time was spent commuting to and from work/school, which allowed student parents more time and flexibility. However, these benefits do not outweigh the negative consequences student parents faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the context of the SEM model, survey responses indicate that while the manifestation of COVID-19 challenges were seen at the individual level (reduced productivity, reduced work quality), the root cause of these were related to society norms, relationship dynamics, and constraints within their larger academic and student communities ( Wiese and Stertz, 2022 ; Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ; Todd, 2023 ).

Relationship

The survey showed that consequences of being a student parent also included dealing with partner relationship dynamics. When asked if they felt their partner contributed to balancing child care obligations during the pandemic, most of the respondents selected that they somewhat or strongly agree with the statement. However, there were still some that disagreed. This distribution of responses is also reflected in what was reported in Holmes and Nikiforidou (2023) . There were similar results when asked if their partner/spouse/significant other was able to help with childcare while working from home. The vast majority of the respondents, 97 percent, identified themselves as females, so these results are mostly coming from a mother’s view. This is interesting because mothers are usually viewed as the primary caretakers for children and domestic duties, even as mothers enter the workforce and the prevalence of two-income households has increased drastically ( Fetterolf and Rudman, 2014 ). We asked an open-ended question that stated, “What concerns, if any, do you have about your parenting style and/or abilities during the pandemic?” A few of the respondents mentioned that they were forced to allow their children to have more screen time due to the fact that they were less patient with the child or needed to focus. One parent stated,

“I am much less effective as a parent during the pandemic because I am exhausted and juggling too many tasks all the time without clear breaks between them. It’s insane.”

This is important as the consequences that they are facing with their parenting styles are heavily influenced by the adaptations they have had to make to deal with the pandemic.

Survey responses discovered that the parents deal with lack of support of resources. The question regarding whether or not these parents participate in a student parent community in their department/at their institution for resources and support received more strongly disagree responses than any other category. Having support and resources is something that could have been helpful to many of these parents during their transition to working at home during the pandemic; however, many of them either did not know they existed or their schools did not have a community in place for them. Todd coined the student parent population as invisible due to the lack of organized student parent communities, as well as lack of prioritization or even acknowledgement by higher education administrations ( Todd, 2023 ). Over half of the respondents strongly disagreed that their educational institution has provided adequate support or resources to student parents throughout the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another consequence that these student parents had to endure is working outside of regular office hours. They were forced to work outside of the traditional 9 am – 5 pm because their children were not at childcare or school at this time. Due to schools and daycares being closed for months as the pandemic began or due to frequent quarantines when they were back in session, the parents were required to make sure the child or children received the care and education they needed to stay on track with their school curriculums. In addition, this led to constant distractions throughout the day that led to parents having to work late nights and early mornings. Nikiforidou and Holmes use Third Space Theory to explore being a parent during lockdown, being a student during lockdown, and the space between, leading to an emergence of such strategies described above to try and balance the demands of being a student and parent simultaneously during the pandemic ( Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ).

One of the main societal factors contributing here is gender and the traditional roles that accompany them. As mentioned, a majority of the respondents were women. Society often emphasizes women taking on the familial roles of childcare, cooking, cleaning, and providing support for their significant other. The pandemic overwhelmed these roles even more because both parents were required to stay home in many cases resulting in the women having to do more around the house, which has also been observed in other studies of student mothers ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ; Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ; Sallee and Yates, 2023 ; Todd, 2023 ). These added stresses may cause even more women to leave the workforce, reducing diversity in the workplace and within societal roles.

Effects on mental health

The obstacles traditionally faced by student parents became more challenging during the pandemic. Many of these student parents have the responsibility of providing for their children, completing schoolwork, caring for themselves, and making sure to complete the tasks required for their jobs. Along with this accompanies significant impacts on mental health. The survey results highlighted the mental toll the pandemic had on student parents while working from home. From the “check all that apply” questions in this section, 78% of participants felt stressed about their course work performance, 89% felt stressed about their research progress, and 86% felt stressed about the pandemic’s damage in their community. Additionally, the majority of the survey respondents agreed that they felt guilty for not spending adequate time on school work/research and their children while being a student parent during the pandemic. One positive effect of working from home was the lessened financial strain as only 33% of respondents reported feeling stressed about money while working from home; however, the prevalence of married respondents and dual-income households should be considered here. Holmes and Nikiforidou also found that some student parents found the pandemic as a learning opportunity for how to juggle school and parenting, as well as enjoyed the additional time with family ( Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ). Regardless, 75% of student parents reported that they felt an overall decline in their mental health while working from home during the pandemic. When asked to describe how working from home affected their mental health, one participant writes,

“I’m constantly stressed about being behind on research and constantly overwhelmed by both research and home related tasks. I’m never caught up and never get a real break from either role.”

Similarly, another student parent writes,

“Focus, achievement are both down and that makes me feel guilty and worried about my future. I'm constantly considering dropping out to alleviate the stress.”

Other student parents responded in a similar manner expressing how they are battling feelings of “isolation and depression and lack of control” which can play a major role in their performance as both a student and a parent. Others have found additional negative descriptors of student parent experiences during the pandemic, including “too much,” “overwhelmed,” “suffocating,” “exhausting,” and “depleting” ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ).

In addition to the stress caused by working from home, student parents also had reservations about returning to in person work/school activities. From the survey results, only 21% of respondents reported that they feel less stressed because they were returning to in person work/school activities, and only a third of respondents felt that they would get more accomplished when returning to in person school/work. In addition to the productivity worries of returning in person, many student parents reported feeling stressed about child illness and school/daycare closures during this time. For example, while returning to in person activities, 94% of student parents felt worried that they would have to miss work due to self or child illness, and 79% of participants felt worried that their child might get sent home from school for spiking a fever regardless of COVID-19 positive status. These worries took a great toll on the mental health of student parents, and 49% of student parents felt that they could not fully focus on their work due to the acute stress of self or child illness occurring. Because of the prevalence of COVID-19 cases at the time, many student parents felt that vaccination could reduce the possibility of self or child illness occurring. The survey results revealed that 47% of student parents “strongly agreed” that vaccination of self would alleviate stress associated with returning in person, and further 53% of respondents “strongly agreed” that vaccination of their children would alleviate the stress of returning in person. When asked to describe how to work/school/in-person activities affected their mental health, one participant writes,

“The biggest thing that both helps but makes me stressed/worried is sending my unvaccinated kid to daycare. My kid has asthma. We spent time in PICU when he was a baby, rsv multiple times, etc. So a lot of this takes me back to those triggering events. So while sending him helps me work better it also is always on my mind and I worry. It's just a constant struggle.”

Another participant described a similar worry as they write,

“Anxiety over my young unvaccinated children getting ill, but also this chronic knot in my gut, waiting for a classroom exposure and quarantine.”

Further, another student parent found some comfort returning to routine in-person activities as they write,

“It helped at first, but it also brought out the realities of having completely socially isolated myself for months on end. I felt a lot of anxiety being around others with new social covid rules, including rules imposed by the University (which at my institution were awful. We weren't allowed to eat or drink inside any University building for over three months). So a lot of anxiety, but also feeling good to be returning to my usual job with (slightly) the same routine.”

The heightened fear and stress that student parents experienced due to the pandemic had a significant impact on their mental health. Dealing with constant worries can cause an individual’s performance and enthusiasm for parenting and/or academics to be dampened. These participants were asked if they felt as though they were at a disadvantage from other students because they are raising child(ren), and most respondents stated yes. A few of the respondents stated,

“Yes. I feel like other students can be more productive at home than parents, and yet the expectations are the same and no special accommodations are given.”

“Yes- those without children have so much more flexibility to take on activities such as teaching. Whereas I have to balance work with childcare.”

The majority of respondents similarly felt that they were at a disadvantage compared to their non-student parent counterparts and felt overwhelmed by the stressors of the pandemic without having adequate resources to cope with the precarious situation. Todd’s study also reflects these statements and emphasizes that a sense of belonging increases student parent success at a university ( Todd, 2023 ).

Mental health is often overlooked by individuals when they have other factors requiring their immediate attention. Many students experienced anxiety and stress due to the unpredictability of the pandemic. They did not know when or if anyone in the family might contract the virus or if they might lose their job or keep up with their schoolwork. The stress that this created negatively impacted their academic performance as well as their overall well-being. When the respondents were asked to describe how working from home affected their mental health some of the comments included,

“So much anxiety. Isolation. Loss of Motivation. Alcohol Abuse”

“Constantly stressed about being overwhelmed by both research and home related activities”,

“Made me less tolerable of people and anxious.”

Many other statements aligned closely in tone and theme with the ones listed. Overall, working from home during COVID-19 caused a great deal of stress for these student parents. They were stressed about taking care of their child and schoolwork, not getting enough sleep, and the possibility of a loved one getting COVID-19, to name a few. When asked to describe how returning to school/work/in-person activities affected their mental health, there were a mixture of comments. Some were more at peace because they did not have family there to distract them from completing work-related tasks. Yet others were even more stressed because they had to worry about sending unvaccinated children to school. The attitude toward mental health is usually that it can be dealt with when time permits. However, most people forget to set aside time to deal with their emotional well-being, and it became even more difficult with the pandemic for these student parents who already have little time for themselves at baseline.

These parents had to balance their children’s needs as well as their own. The needs for their children included the transition to remote learning. Many parents were forced to be their child’s teacher in order to make sure their child did not fall behind. Strains between the parent and child arose because these parents did not get the normal time away from their children for school and/or work in addition to the added stress of having to balance their own work with teaching their children. During the pandemic, everyone was required to figure out how to keep children entertained enough for them to try and get their work done. This is a problem for student parents’ mental health because they do not have the time to themselves that they need. This is also reflected in Nikifouridou and Holmes’ Third Space Theory analysis of student parents bridging the gap between student and parent identities and the lack of resources available to help someone construct and sustain that bridge ( Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ). Another relationship that affected these student parents’ mental health was their connection with their research or graduate advisor. Many of the respondents did not feel supported by their advisor. The necessary shifts between online, hybrid, and in-person would have been easier if they had more advisors and/or professors willing to provide help, support, and flexibility ( Todd, 2023 ). If the student parent felt like their advisors did not care about them enough to move due dates and be understanding, then they mentally would have more anxiety and stress than before.

A major theme at the community level was the institutional vs. local community’s effect on the individual. Institutionally, these student parents were forced to continue to produce the same workload as required before the pandemic with the now added responsibilities of childcare and their child’s virtual schooling. Nikiforidou and Holmes state that almost 30% of the participants in their study made specific references to “being a parent during the day and being a student during the night or when children were asleep” ( Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ). In relation to their local community, school and daycare center closures created a difficult situation for student parents to balance with their own responsibilities. Multiple times during the pandemic, childcare providers and schools had to shut their doors when an outbreak of the virus occurred ( Yavorsky et al., 2022 ). Children had to wait until a certain age to be able to get vaccinated; even once they reached it, many parents did not want their child to receive the vaccine due to the seemingly rushed nature of approval, pre-existing health conditions, or social pressures, among other reasons ( Olusanya et al., 2021 ). For single student parents with no help, this caused an even greater threat to their schoolwork and research/graduate work because they would have to take time off in order to care for their child or children. Missed assignments and lack of focus caused many student parents’ grades to drop causing their mental health to decline. This decline came from the fact that they had to lose sleep and personal time in order to make up for this over-extended workload ( Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2023 ; Todd, 2023 ). Sallee and Yates argue that student mothers in particular turned to internal, women-comprised networks to help navigate parenting and academics during the pandemic; however, that support network has to exist and be accessible for student parents, which may not always be the case ( Sallee and Yates, 2023 ).

Society has created a stigma around student parents that has been a topic of discussion for many years ( Ascend at the Aspen Institute, 2021 ). One pressing topic is whether or not students with children can do as much as those without due to the extra responsibilities that come with being a parent ( Briegel et al., 2023 ). Due to these biases and microaggressions, many student parents feel inferior to their non-parent student peers ( Moreau and Kerner, 2015 ; Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ). In addition, financial insecurity among student parents with the addition of inflation, supply chain shortages, reduced hours, and losing jobs strikes more complex issues that are difficult to manage while also being a student and parent ( Moreau and Kerner, 2015 ; Tsurugano et al., 2021 ).

Coping resources

The last section of the survey aimed to identify the coping resources available to student parents throughout the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many student parents alluded to a lack of resources available to them during this time that made working from home even harder. From the Likert scale questions, 69% of student parents strongly disagreed that their educational institution or university provided adequate resources to them during the pandemic. When asked what type of resources their institution provides for student parents, one participant writes,

“None. No parental leave. No committees. Absolutely nothing.”

Another participant conveyed a similar sentiment as they write,

“This is a thing? My advisor being a woman with children herself was the saving grace for my experience the last two years.”

In addition to the clear lack of resources available to student parents during the pandemic, 83% of student parent respondents strongly or somewhat disagreed that established student parent communities existed at their institution that they could participate in for resources and support. Some participants reported that they did not know of any other student parents in their department that they could contact for support. For many student parents, even knowing of someone else in a similar situation can provide comfort during difficult times. One student parent writes,

“The other parents in my cohort have been my lifeboat the past couple of years…”

demonstrating how knowing other student parents can help student parents feel less isolated during this time ( Sallee and Yates, 2023 ; Todd, 2023 ).

Despite the lack of institutional resources provided for student parents during the pandemic, participants reported periods of grace while working from home. Some student parents found that while working from home, instructors and research advisors were understanding of delays and unmet deadlines due to childcare obligations or disruptions. Additionally, some participants agreed that research advisors and instructors communicated effectively with them on a regular basis. Upon returning to in-person, student parents found that research advisors and instructors were still understanding of delays and unmet deadlines due to childcare disruptions. Also, while working from home, 76% of participants had a significant other that was capable of helping with childcare, and but only a fraction of the student parents felt that their partner contributed to balancing childcare obligations during the pandemic, with the reminder that all but one respondent identified as a female. Gendered differences in parenting responsibilities among student parents have been previously reported as well ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ; Sallee and Yates, 2023 ).

The use of technology also played a key role in whether or not student parents were able to work effectively from home during the pandemic. From the survey, 71% of student parents found that the use of online technology to provide online learning and remote meetings helped them succeed during periods of remote work.

When asked what changes should be made in order to benefit parents that are also university students, most student parents strongly suggest some form of affordable on-campus childcare to aid them with childcare disruptions and obligations. Student parents also wish for more flexibility with deadlines and a greater understanding of the precarious situation student parents face. One student parent suggests,

“Flexible deadlines and an understanding to have the camera and mic off during meetings so I can do things like breastfeed/bounce a baby.”

Another student parent writes, asking for,

“Better clarity and knowledge when it comes to what ways the university can be flexible with us and make those policies universal vs instructor by instructor, and a better understanding of what parents are actually dealing with”

Student parents wish not only for resources to be more available to them, but also to be more effectively advertised in order for them to utilize the resources being offered. Many student parents were not aware of the existence of student parent support groups and better clarity can help them benefit from these resources. Holmes and Nikiforidou analyzed multiple university student support pages and found that the vast majority indicated support for student mental health, physical health, and academic issues while the few student parent support websites focused mostly on practical support, such as finding childcare and financial aid ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ).

The coping resources section of the survey focuses on the ways that these student parents dealt with the changes they faced with the pandemic. It is important to know what they did or did not do or have access to in order to provide suggestions on what should be implemented at a university level to help student parents remain successful with schoolwork and research if another major event like the pandemic happens in the future. Within the SEM, the individual level will be greatly impacted when it comes to coping resources, their availability, and quality. Coping can be defined as something that individuals can use either as an activity, mindset, or action which allows them to manage the stressors of different situations ( Skibniewski-Woods, 2022 ). If an individual does not find a positive way to cope, then they can experience burnout and decline mental health ( Wilson et al., 2021 ). These parents discussed how they did not have the time or energy to stick to their normal routines, so it can be inferred that this may have included self-care as well. Positive coping strategies have been reported by student parents during the pandemic, such as prioritizing tasks, talking with others, self-care, positive thinking, and their religion ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ). Resources and suggestions such as these should be not only available to student parents, but they need to be well-known and widely advertised so that they can be used effectively.

Coping resources on the relationship level of the SEM refer to social support and resources that are available to individuals within their relationships. Relationships can include family, friends, professors, advisors, and their child/ren’s school teachers. One of the most important types of resources for this category is emotional support such as validation of feelings, encouragement, active listening, and reassurance. COVID-19 caused strain in many different relationships, and the student parents in the survey answered questions relating to the previously mentioned relationships. When asked the question, “While working from home, my research advisor was understanding of delays or unmet deadlines due to childcare obligations or disruptions,” over half of the responses were “strongly disagree.” Few of the respondents felt like their research advisor communicated effectively on a regular basis. Perhaps this is due to similar strains the research advisor was experiencing due to balancing their academic career and parenthood during the pandemic ( Fulweiler et al., 2021 ). Positive communication skills include one’s ability to express themselves, actively listen, and provide feedback to the individual they are talking to, and this is something that many of these student parents were not receiving from their advisors during the pandemic. The survey included questions challenging whether or not these situations changed when they arrived back in person. Although there were slightly fewer “strongly disagree” responses than there were from the working from home questions, less-than-ideal support was provided that these student parents needed. The relationship between the student parent and their partner/spouse/significant other is essential to understand as well. If these student parents felt as though they were receiving more help during the transitions that COVID-19 threw at them, then they might have been able to feel more confident in battling the changes. However, 55% of the student parents strongly disagreed with the statement that their partner was able and/or willing to help with childcare while working from home. Seventy four percent of the respondents indicated that they either strongly or somewhat disagree with the statement that they felt their partner contributed to balancing childcare obligations during the pandemic. Sallee and Yates stress the importance of women-comprised networks to help specifically student mothers cope, bond, and persist throughout the pandemic because these internal support systems could step up when higher education institutions failed to do so ( Sallee and Yates, 2023 ).

It is understood that being a student parent can be a challenging task, but there should be sufficient coping resources available on the community level to help these student parents succeed in their aspirations. One of the most common of those resources is community and institutional parent supporting groups. The open-ended question of “What type of resources does your institution provide for student parents?” received statements such as:

“none” “very, very little” “a smile and a wave” ,

“outside of normal student resources, there are not any specialized for parents.”

These statements are also supported by the student support university website analysis performed by Holmes and Nikiforidou (2023) . This is important because the lack of resources at most institutions causes individuals to feel unsupported and forgotten, or as Todd coined “invisible” ( Todd, 2023 ). “Strongly disagree” was also the most popular choice on the survey question of whether their educational institution has provided adequate support/resources to student parents throughout the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is unfortunate considering the fact that these student parents were forced to change the way that they learned in order to protect themselves, their families, and individuals at the school from COVID-19.

Societal influences can play a major role in helping (or impeding) student parents in how they deal with the demands of childcare and schoolwork. There are a variety of coping resources that have been argued to be necessary for helping student parents, one of which is affordable childcare ( Cruse et al., 2021 ; Williams et al., 2022 ). Access to reasonably priced and high-quality childcare, especially available on-campus, can help these parents have a sense of security financially and mentally ( Cruse et al., 2021 ; Richardson, 2022 ; Williams et al., 2022 ). Another important aspect of this level is flexibility in academic schedules ( Todd, 2023 ). Many student parents stated that they did not feel confident in completing their thesis and dissertation on time due to the pandemic. Having flexible academic and research schedules during the time that they were sent online and transitioning back in person would allow these individuals to balance their parental responsibilities and academic ones as well ( King, 2022 ). Todd’s findings corroborate our results, demonstrating that student parents need flexibility in both time and space, as well as a sense of belonging through understanding, support, reassurance, and connection in order to sustain student parent success while at university ( Todd, 2023 ). Further, when the pandemic hit, many individuals rushed into stores and bought high volumes of necessities for storage which caused an increase in price due to high demand. Such food price increases, subsequent supply chain issues, and fear of grocery shopping contributed to student food insecurity during the pandemic ( Owens et al., 2020 ). The student parents in our survey did not have any positive comments to include when it comes to receiving aid or support at the societal level.

Recommendations

The open-ended section of our survey allowed student parents to provide their own recommendations for how higher education institutions can help them navigate these challenges. The majority of student parents implore higher education institutions to establish procedures for flexible deadlines. One student parent asks that they

“allow for more flexibility in support and accommodations to help people in their unique situations.”

Another student parent writes,

“Student parents need so much grace and understanding. Clear and universal policies that are student/parent centered.”

The implementation of clear policies and procedures for flexible deadlines would help ensure that student parents can perform to the best of their ability in the case that childcare-related challenges arise. Further, student parents also suggest better clarity of the policies in place for student parents and that higher education institutions attempt to better understand the situations they face. One student parent requests,

“Better clarity and knowledge when it comes to what ways the university can be flexible with us and make those policies universal vs instructor by instructor, better understanding of what parents are actually dealing with these childcare interruptions continuing to happen, universal ability to allows students parents work from home as needed vs leaving it up to each individual supervisor. My supervisor is incredibly understanding but not all are.”

In addition to flexible procedures and clear policies, the majority of student parents also recommended that institutions provide on campus childcare centers. One student parent writes,

“Offer affordable on campus childcare!”

“Offer childcare on campus. Have spaces for children on campus. Make resources more available and advertised.”

Lastly, a student parent writes,

“If not already available, I would think on-campus childcare would be helpful. As would a children-welcome parent support group (in person).”

On-campus childcare would eliminate the need for outside childcare and aid in logistics for attending classes by parents. However, while on-campus childcare has been offered at some institutions, faculty are usually prioritized for already competitive spots, and tuition is charged at the market rate (which is sometimes not affordable for faculty, let alone students with limited to no income) ( Cruse et al., 2021 ). On-campus childcare should be carefully considered for implementation by higher education institutions to protect and maintain accessibility for financially insecure students, perhaps with a sliding-scale tuition based on income and/or in combination with professional teacher development at the institution ( Barbour and Bersani, 1991 ; Richardson, 2022 ). Further, student parents also recommended that higher education institutions codify protections for student parents who need to miss class for childcare-related reasons. This protection would ensure that student parents are not at a disadvantage compared to their non-student parent counterparts due to circumstances outside of their control, such as a child falling ill.

Overall, it needs to be made abundantly clear to higher education institutions that a significant portion of their student population also has parenting responsibilities; it is not acceptable for over 20% of the student population to be “invisible” ( Todd, 2023 ). Higher education institutions should also be made aware of the unique issues student parents face and enact policies and procedures to help alleviate the strain placed on them to make higher education more inclusive and accessible to this population. In conjunction with conveying this knowledge to these administrations, tangible support and resources need to be implemented. Holmes and Nikiforidou recommend enhanced availability of support for student parents, including designated support programs and counselors for student parents, improving the ethos of student parents among university constituents, and a review of policies to permit greater flexibility for student parents ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ). We also recommend enhanced visibility and advertisement of resources for student parents and for those resources to be more than superficial links to websites. There should be tailored support and resources for student parents at all stages of parenthood, including pregnancy ( Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ). Such resources should include conveying what rights student parents have to receiving an education; understanding Title IX guidelines for parenting students; how to apply for academic accommodations; how to find childcare in the area; finding and applying for insurance for giving birth and for children after birth, perhaps in the form of Medicaid or other state-funded children insurance programs; housing resources; food banks; how to apply for the women, infants, and children (WIC) nutrition program and other aid; study skill counseling; mental services counseling; time management counseling; tutoring services; and perhaps the most widespread, fostering and sustaining a visible student parent community ( Fershee, 2010 ; Mason and Younger, 2014 ; U.S. Department of Education, 2020 ; Holmes and Nikiforidou, 2023 ). In addition, there are donor-supported programs (not funded by the university) such as “Baby Steps” at Auburn University, University of Alabama, University of Central Florida, and University of Tennessee that not only support students with unplanned pregnancies, but provide housing, childcare, meals, counseling, tutoring, and a number of other services for student mothers attending those institutions at no cost ( Baby Steps, 2023 ).

However, how effective are such policies at higher education institutions? In 2016, Moreau identified three approaches higher education institutions use to support student parents, which include the careblind/universal, target, and mainstreaming approaches ( Moreau, 2016b ). The careblind/universal approach categorizes an institution as not having any specific provisions or policies in place, with an emphasis on universal policies needing to be equal for every student ( Moreau, 2016b ). The targeted approach has specific policies in place for student parents, such as specialized financial aid options or campus childcare ( Moreau, 2016b ). The mainstreaming approach attempts to make the needs of student parents more well-known and integrated into student policies, such as having designated websites or advisors for student parent support ( Moreau, 2016b ). Unfortunately, even with targeted or mainstream strategies, student parents report that they are largely unaware of the policies and/or do not have access to the resources the institution is attempting to provide ( Moreau, 2016b ; Baddley, 2021 ). In the report “Perception is Reality,” the Feminists for Life of America purport that while many higher education institutions have some level of on-campus resources for pregnant and parenting students, the basic resources are usually unpublicized ( Utley, 2013 ; Baddley, 2021 ). Thus, higher education administrations need be more intentional in not only establishing such supportive resources for student parents, but being effective in their advertisement and follow-through of support.

In conclusion, this study only begins to understand the unique challenges and situations student parents faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and their gradual return to in-person operations. While many of the isolating practices (remote work, remote school, hybrid teaching) that produced significant levels of stress are being rolled back, the aftermath of that stress and its long-term consequences remain to be fully understood. Addressing some of the challenges identified in this data will require further investigation at larger scales. This study provides an initial, cursory, exploratory glance at emerging complications of the COVID-19 pandemic for a particularly vulnerable group of students within higher education.

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics statement

The studies involving humans were approved by the University of Mississippi Institutional Review Board, Protocol 22x-096. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author contributions

KF: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. AS: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. AC: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. DR: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. KF and AS were supported from the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi. DR was supported by funding from AHA 848586, NIH R35 GM147050, and NSF ENG EEC 2148764.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Abbas, A., Hosseini, S., Escamilla, J., and Pego, L. (2021). “Analyzing the emotions of students’ parents at higher education level throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: an empirical study based on demographic viewpoints” in 2021 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) (IEEE), 857–860.

Google Scholar

Ajayi, K. V., Odonkor, G., Panjwani, S., Aremu, O., Garney, W., and McKyer, L. E. (2022). Socio-ecological barriers to student-parents academic success: a systematic review. J. Furth. High. Educ. 46, 1257–1274. doi: 10.1080/0309877X.2022.2065629

Crossref Full Text | Google Scholar

Ascend at the Aspen Institute (2021). New study: student parents in college experience unique mental health challenges but lack access to support on campus Ascend at the Aspen Institute Available at: https://ascend.aspeninstitute.org/new-study-student-parents-in-college-experience-unique-mental-health-challenges-but-lack-access-to-support-on-campus/ .

ATSDR. (2015). Chapter 1: models and frameworks | principles of community engagement | ATSDR . Available at: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/communityengagement/pce_models.html#figure1

Baby Steps. (2023). Baby Steps at Auburn University . Available at: https://auburn.babysteps.org

Baddley, C. D. (2021). Exploring student parent experiences with university policies and practices (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Mississippi).

Barbour, N. B., and Bersani, C. U. (1991). The campus child care center as a professional development school. Early Child. Res. Q. 6, 43–49. doi: 10.1016/0885-2006(91)90022-D

Braun, V., and Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual. Res. Psychol. 3, 77–101. doi: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Briegel, M., Jakubec, S., Shippey-Heilman, A., and Bruce, P. (2023). Barriers and supports for student-parents in higher education. Tranform. Dialogues Teach. Learn. J. 15, 12–21. doi: 10.26209/td2023vol15iss31759

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Brooks, R. (2012). Student-parents and higher education: a cross-national comparison. J. Educ. Policy 27, 423–439. doi: 10.1080/02680939.2011.613598

Brooks, R. (2013). Negotiating time and space for study: student-parents and familial relationships. Sociology 47, 443–459. doi: 10.1177/0038038512448565

Brooks, R. (2015). Social and spatial disparities in emotional responses to education: feelings of ‘guilt’ among student-parents. Br. Educ. Res. J. 41, 505–519. doi: 10.1002/berj.3154

Cho, S. H., Roy, R. N., and Dayne, N. (2021). Student–parents’ mental health: factors affecting anxiety and depression. Fam. Consum. Sci. Res. J. 49, 254–269. doi: 10.1111/fcsr.12391

Cruse, L. R., Contreras-Mendez, S., Holtzman, T., Cruse, S. C.-M., and Tessa Holtzman, L. R. (2020). Student parents in the COVID-19 pandemic: Heightened need and the imperative for strengthened support - IWPR IWPR Available at: https://iwpr.org/iwpr-issues/student-parent-success-initiative/student-parents-in-the-covid-19-pandemic-heightened-need-the-imperative-for-strengthened-support-2/ .

Cruse, L. R., Richburg-Hayes, L., Hare, A., and Contreras-Mendez, S. (2021). Evaluating the role of campus child care in student parent success: challenges and opportunities for rigorous study IWPR Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED617783 .

Demeules, J., and Hamer, B. (2013). Retaining young student parents: a growing challenge. About Campus 18, 22–25. doi: 10.1002/abc.21127

Dotson, M. P., Hoyt, L. T., and Cohen, A. K. (2022). ‘Unsuitable’ environments: a qualitative study of US college youth learning online while sheltering-in-place in spring 2020. J. Youth Stud. 27, 161–177. doi: 10.1080/13676261.2022.2112162

Estes, D. K. (2011). Managing the student-parent dilemma: mothers and fathers in higher education. Symb. Interact. 34, 198–219. doi: 10.1525/si.2011.34.2.198

Fershee, K. (2010). An act for all contexts: incorporating the pregnancy Discrimiation act into title IX to help pregnant students gain and retain access to education. Hostra L. Rev. 39:281.

Fetterolf, J. C., and Rudman, L. A. (2014). Gender inequality in the home: the role of relative income, support for traditional gender roles, and perceived entitlement. Gend. Issues 31, 219–237. doi: 10.1007/s12147-014-9126-x

Fulweiler, R. W., Davies, S. W., Biddle, J. F., Burgin, A. J., Cooperdeck, E. H. G., Hanley, T. C., et al. (2021). Rebuild the academy: supporting academic mothers during COVID-19 and beyond. PLoS Biol. 19:e3001100. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001100

PubMed Abstract | Crossref Full Text | Google Scholar

Gault, B., Milli, J., and Cruse, L. R. (2018). Investing in Single Mothers’ Higher Education: Costs and Benefits to Individuals, Families, and Society. Student Parent Success Initiative , Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

Gerrard, E., and Roberts, R. (2006). Student parents, hardship and debt: A qualitative study. Journal of further and higher education , 30, 393–403.

Holm, J. M., Prosek, E. A., and Weisberger, A. C. G. (2015). A phenomenological investigation of counseling doctoral students becoming mothers. Couns. Educ. Superv. 54, 2–16. doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6978.2015.00066.x

Holmes, S. E., and Nikiforidou, Z. (2023). ‘They don’t realise how hard it is’. Investigating the lived experiences of higher education students with parental responsibilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. High. Educ. Q. 77, 638–654. doi: 10.1111/hequ.12423

Jack, O., Chase, E., and Warwick, I. (2019). Higher education as a space for promoting the psychosocial well-being of refugee students. Health Educ. J. 78, 51–66. doi: 10.1177/0017896918792588

Johnson, R. B., and Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Mixed methods research: a research paradigm whose time has come. Educ. Res. 33, 14–26. doi: 10.3102/0013189X033007014

Kilanowski, J. F. (2017). Breadth of the socio-ecological model. J. Agromedicine 22, 295–297. doi: 10.1080/1059924X.2017.1358971

King, K. D. (2022). The impact of academic advisor behaviors on persistence of pregnant and single mothers at 4-year nontraditional universities: a mixed methods study , (Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts Global).

Lin, H.-C., Zeanah, P. L., Olivier, D. F., Bergeron, M. A., and Liu, C. H. (2022). Responding to the pressing yet unrecognized needs of student-parents amid the COVID-19 pandemic. J. Am. Coll. Heal. 70, 2276–2280. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2020.1870474

Lisnyj, K. T., Pearl, D. L., McWhirter, J. E., and Papadopoulos, A. (2021). Exploration of factors affecting post-secondary students’ stress and academic success: Application of the socio-ecological model for health promotion. International journal of environmental research and public health , 18, 3779.

Long, B. T. (2017). Helping women to succeed in higher education: supporting student-parents with child care .

Maguire, M., and Delahunt, B. (2017). Doing a thematic analysis: a practical, step-by-step guide for learning and teaching scholars. All Ireland J. Higher Educ. 9:3351

Manze, M. G., Rauh, L., Smith-Faust, P., and Watnick, D. (2021). Experiences of college students with children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerg. Adulthood 9, 631–638. doi: 10.1177/21676968211020225

Mason, M. A., and Younger, J. (2014). Title IX and pregnancy discrimination in higher education: the new frontier. NYU Rev. L. Soc. Change 38:269.

Medved, C. E., and Heisler, J. (2002). A negotiated order exploration of critical student-faculty interactions: student-parents manage multiple roles. Commun. Educ. 51, 105–120. doi: 10.1080/03634520216510

Mirick, R. G., and Wladkowski, S. P. (2018). Pregnancy, motherhood, and academic career goals: doctoral students. Perspectives 33, 253–269. doi: 10.1177/0886109917753835

Moreau, M. P. (2016a). Gendering student parents in higher education. Gendering student parents in higher education , 99–115.

Moreau, M. P. (2016b). Regulating the student body/ies: university policies and student parents. Br. Educ. Res. J. 42, 906–925. doi: 10.1002/berj.3234

Moreau, M. P., and Kerner, C. (2015). Care in academia: an exploration of student parents’ experiences. Br. J. Sociol. Educ. 36, 215–233. doi: 10.1080/01425692.2013.814533

Nikiforidou, Z., and Holmes, S. (2023). Student parents or parent students in lockdown pandemic? A third space approach. J. Fam. Issues 44, 2009–2024. doi: 10.1177/0192513X211067524

Olusanya, O. A., Bednarczyk, R. A., Davis, R. L., and Shaban-Nejad, A. (2021). Addressing parental vaccine hesitancy and other barriers to childhood/adolescent vaccination uptake during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Front. Immunol. 12:663074. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.663074

Owens, M. R., Brito-Silva, F., Kirkland, T., Moore, C. E., Davis, K. E., Patterson, M. A., et al. (2020). Prevalence and social determinants of food insecurity among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nutrients 12:2515. doi: 10.3390/nu12092515

Reed, S., Grosz, M., Kurlaender, M., and Cooper, S. (2021). A portrait of student parents in the California community colleges. UC Davis Wheelhouse Res. Brief 6, 1–13.

Richardson, F. (2022). Supporting single mother students with on-campus childcare centers: a cross institutional program evaluation . New Jersey City University.

Roy, R. N., Bradecich, A., Dayne, N., and Luna, A. (2018). The transition to motherhood: the experiences of college student-parents. J. Fami. Consum. Sci. 110, 48–57. doi: 10.14307/JFCS110.3.48

Sallee, M. W. (2015). Adding academics to the work/family puzzle: graduate student parents in higher education and student affairs. J. Stud. Aff. Res. Pract. 52, 401–413. doi: 10.1080/19496591.2015.1083438

Sallee, M. W., and Cox, R. D. (2019). Thinking beyond childcare: supporting community college student-parents. Am. J. Educ. 125, 621–645. doi: 10.1086/704094

Sallee, M. W., and Yates, A. S. (2023). The ties that bind: student-mothers’ social capital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rev. High. Educ. 47, 31–60. doi: 10.1353/rhe.2023.a907270

Shorten, A., and Smith, J. (2017). Mixed methods research: expanding the evidence base. Evid. Based Nurs. 20, 74–75. doi: 10.1136/eb-2017-102699

Skibniewski-Woods, D. (2022). What is coping? The JOURNAL of the health VISITORS' association. Community Pract. 95, 40–43.

Sogari, G., Velez-Argumedo, C., Gómez, M. I., and Mora, C. (2018). College students and eating habits: a study using an ecological model for healthy behavior. Nutrients 10:1823. doi: 10.3390/nu10121823

Staniscuaski, F., Reichert, F., Werneck, F. P., de Oliveira, L., Mello-Carpes, P. B., Soletti, R. C., et al. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on academic mothers. Science 368:724. doi: 10.1126/science.abc2740

Su, W. (2022). Masked ball for all: how anonymity affects students’ perceived comfort levels in peer feedback. Assess. Eval. High. Educ. 48, 502–512. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2022.2089348

Tarzia, L., Henderson-Brooks, K., Baloch, S., and Hegarty, K. (2023). Women higher education students’ experiences of sexual violence: a scoping review and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies. Trauma Violence Abuse , 25, 704–720. doi: 10.1177/15248380231162976

The Stanford Daily (2020). ‘Room to breathe’: Graduate students struggle to balance COVID-19 and childcare The Stanford Daily Available at: https://stanforddaily.com/2020/12/09/room-to-breathe-graduate-students-struggle-to-balance-covid-19-and-childcare/ .

Todd, A. (2023). Let’s get visible: evidence-based interventions aimed at supporting empowering and celebrating student-parents in higher education. J. Learn. Dev. High. Educ. 26. doi: 10.47408/jldhe.vi26.920

Tsurugano, S., Nishikitani, M., Inoue, M., and Yano, E. (2021). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on working students: results from the labor force survey and the student lifestyle survey. J. Occup. Health 63:e12209. doi: 10.1002/1348-9585.12209

U.S. Department of Education. (2020). Know your rights: pregnant or parenting? Title IX protects you from discrimination at school . Available at: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/dcl-know-rights-201306-title-ix.pdf

Utley, C. D. (2013). Perception IS reality – full report pregnancy and parenting resources on campus, feminists for life . Available at: https://www.feministsforlife.org/perception-is-reality/ .

Vilme, H., Akin-Odanye, E. O., Sauls, D. L., De Leon, J., Paul, C., Brown Speights, J. S., et al. (2022). A social-ecological exploration of college and university students’ COVID-19 infection preventive behaviors. Am. J. Health Educ. 53, 256–265. doi: 10.1080/19325037.2022.2071361

Wainwright, E., and Marandet, E. (2010). Parents in higher education: impacts of university learning on the self and the family. Educational Review , 62, 449–465.

Wiese, B. S., and Stertz, A. M. (2022). Mothers’ regrets of having (or not having) returned to work after childbirth: longitudinal relationships with organizational commitment. Appl. Psychol. 72, 451–476. doi: 10.1111/apps.12412

Williams, B., Bitar, J., Polk, P., Nguyen, A., Montague, G., Gillispie, C., et al. (2022). For Student Parents, the Biggest Hurdles to a Higher Education Are Cost and Finding Child Care. Education Trust .

Wilson, C. A., Metwally, H., Smith, H., Ann, B. K., and Britt, T. W. (2021). Chronicling moral distress among healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal analysis of mental health strain, burnout, and maladaptive coping behaviours. Int. J. Ment. Health Nurs. 31, 111–127. doi: 10.1111/inm.12942

Wright, L. (2022). Using the Social-Ecological Model to Better Understand Sexual Assertiveness Among Undergraduate Women at an Institution of Higher Education in the Southeastern United States . (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Southern Mississippi).

Yavorsky, J. E., Qian, Y., and Sargent, A. C. (2022). “The gendered pandemic: the implications of COVID-19 for work and family” in Working in America (Routledge), 305–317.

Keywords: student parents, COVID-19 pandemic, mental health, coping resources, higher education

Citation: Franklin KT, Saval AJ, Cafer AM and Reinemann DN (2024) A retrospective analysis of the perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on systemic barriers to success for university student parents. Front. Educ . 9:1256454. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1256454

Received: 10 July 2023; Accepted: 28 March 2024; Published: 08 April 2024.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2024 Franklin, Saval, Cafer and Reinemann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Anne M. Cafer, [email protected] ; Dana N. Reinemann, [email protected]

† These authors share first authorship

This article is part of the Research Topic

Women in Higher Education

Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay

by: Venkates Swaminathan | Updated: September 14, 2020

Print article

Writing about COVID-19 in your college admission essay

For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic’s impact. The different sections have differing goals. You must understand how to use each section for its appropriate use.

The CommonApp COVID-19 question

First, the CommonApp this year has an additional question specifically about COVID-19 :

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you.

This question seeks to understand the adversity that students may have had to face due to the pandemic, the move to online education, or the shelter-in-place rules. You don’t have to answer this question if the impact on you wasn’t particularly severe. Some examples of things students should discuss include:

The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic.
The candidate had to deal with personal or family issues, such as abusive living situations or other safety concerns
The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges.
Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams.

Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions office has a blog about this section. He recommends students ask themselves several questions as they go about answering this section:

Are my experiences different from others’?
Are there noticeable changes on my transcript?
Am I aware of my privilege?
Am I specific? Am I explaining rather than complaining?
Is this information being included elsewhere on my application?

If you do answer this section, be brief and to-the-point.

Counselor recommendations and school profiles

Second, counselors will, in their counselor forms and school profiles on the CommonApp, address how the school handled the pandemic and how it might have affected students, specifically as it relates to:

Grading scales and policies
Graduation requirements
Instructional methods
Schedules and course offerings
Testing requirements
Your academic calendar
Other extenuating circumstances

Students don’t have to mention these matters in their application unless something unusual happened.

Writing about COVID-19 in your main essay

Write about your experiences during the pandemic in your main college essay if your experience is personal, relevant, and the most important thing to discuss in your college admission essay. That you had to stay home and study online isn’t sufficient, as millions of other students faced the same situation. But sometimes, it can be appropriate and helpful to write about something related to the pandemic in your essay. For example:

One student developed a website for a local comic book store. The store might not have survived without the ability for people to order comic books online. The student had a long-standing relationship with the store, and it was an institution that created a community for students who otherwise felt left out.
One student started a YouTube channel to help other students with academic subjects he was very familiar with and began tutoring others.
Some students used their extra time that was the result of the stay-at-home orders to take online courses pursuing topics they are genuinely interested in or developing new interests, like a foreign language or music.

Experiences like this can be good topics for the CommonApp essay as long as they reflect something genuinely important about the student. For many students whose lives have been shaped by this pandemic, it can be a critical part of their college application.

Want more? Read 6 ways to improve a college essay , What the &%$! should I write about in my college essay , and Just how important is a college admissions essay? .

Homes Nearby

Homes for rent and sale near schools

Why the worry about Critical Race Theory in schools?

How our schools are (and aren't) addressing race

The truth about homework in America

What should I write my college essay about?

What the #%@!& should I write about in my college essay?

Yes! Sign me up for updates relevant to my child's grade.

Please enter a valid email address

Thank you for signing up!

Server Issue: Please try again later. Sorry for the inconvenience

COVID-19: The Impact on Education Research Paper

Ever since the initial occurrence was identified in 2019 and the worldwide epidemic started in 2020, the COVID virus illness has emerged as one of the most significant global health problems. As of 1 October 2022, more than 190 million documented infections and more than 3.5 million documented fatalities from more than 175 nations were recorded by the Global Health Authority (Almahasees et al., 2021). Many actions, including social exclusion, border surveillance, and educational shutdown, have successfully stopped the virus’s transmission. Despite the notion that immunizations have been developed to combat the COVID-19 epidemic, there is little question that the epidemic has dramatically altered people’s lives and habits in many ways. Physical exercise, buddy connections, and education and training in educational institutions are a few categories impacted. Due to these unique developments, bodily and cognitive health may be affected and worsened.

Due to social exclusion and other factors, preliminary studies have shown that COVID-19 harms young adults’ physiological and cognitive well-being. During the pandemic between April and June 2020, 27.7% of participants confirmed a reduction in workout intensity; there was an almost linear relationship between workout recurrence and emotional state, suggesting that people who practiced more regularly might have had a positive mood. These findings came from an extensive Tran’s survey that looked at data from 20 countries and examined the dynamic trends in fitness traits and attitudes. In addition, an evaluation of the epidemiology of psychiatric conditions compiled the available data and recognized increased odds for depressive episodes, tension, or chronic post-traumatic distress in the overall public. This was also evident among COVID-19 sufferers and healthcare professional. A meta-analysis of sixteen articles discovered an increased predominance of depressive or anxiousness health conditions in kids and young teenagers from the ages of 8 to 17 years of age (Chu & Li, 2022). Thus, throughout shutdown or school closing, many people’s bodily and mental health may undoubtedly be impacted.

Due to the unique instructional strategies implemented during these unusual circumstances, such as electronic digital training or online classes, lockout and school shutdown may substantially influence higher educational activity. Due to technical challenges throughout the digital learning era, adjusting to these innovative techniques may raise college students’ uneasiness and impair their enthusiasm for and trust in individualized learning. Furthermore, a recent comprehensive analysis disclosed a further decrease in bodily exercise levels at any degree in this specific group during the shutdown. This is because learners have been identified to be in higher jeopardy for bad physical activity behavior.

There is a direct correlation between material activity and psychic health. Past studies have proved that those who lead sedentary lifestyles or invest a lot of their time seated are far more prone to acquire non-communicable diseases like obesity or pressure (Chu & Li, 2022). These illnesses commonly combine with psychological health difficulties or contribute to them. Since a previous study in Taiwan discovered a connection between higher activity frequency and more excellent people, this is also true throughout the COVID-19 pandemic (Almahasees et al., 2021). As a consequence of shutting schools, university learners may be more viable to bodily inactivity and intellectual illness throughout the electronic learning play. It is vital to underline the importance of this population’s intellectual and tangible health.

Although closing schools is a necessary reaction to the COVID epidemic, this may harm people’s bodily and emotional well-being in addition to additional restrictions, including social withdrawal, no public gatherings, and no dining in at eateries. However, more study has been done to assess the effects of the shift in teaching process methods on college students’ condition and there needs to be more proof of any variations in participants’ medical and psychological health across in and virtual study times (Hamdan & Amorri, 2022). To better comprehend the effects of closing schools during the COVID-19 epidemic, this investigation compared the aerobic activity, mental discomfort, and stress related to undergraduate life among academic learners throughout the in-class teaching time to the internet education session. It was explicitly expected that throughout the digital learning time, as opposed to the in-class schooling process, college students could be less inclined to engage in daily exercise and more prone to feel anxiety and discomfort.

Methodology

The Chinese Pharmaceutical College and Hospital Experimental Integrity Board authorized this bridge study. In July 2020, advertisements on online networks were used to attract university students to a university clinic in central Taipei. Anyone qualified could obtain the connection to the private internet poll, which contained a permission form, demographics data, and questions about physical exercise, emotional discomfort, and the stress of college life (Fabriz et al., 2021). Before responding to any inquiries, they were asked to verify their qualification, including that they are enrolled at the institution; and that they are competent to read the questions in Chinese.

The interactive poll was accessible to 750 students, who responded privately. Forty-nine students were found to be ineligible, while 420 learners failed to answer all of the queries (Hamdan & Amorri, 2022). Finally, 181 participants (28.4%) responded correctly to every question (Hamdan & Amorri, 2022). The poll took between 15 and 20 minutes to finish (Chu & Li, 2022). Notably, because this was merge studies carried out following the second pandemic outbreak, all respondents only completed the internet questionnaire once and were given specific commands concerning their responses to questions about their health tendencies or prestige both at the physical learning phase and throughout the e-learning period.

The Students ‘ anxiety Inventory, created to measure tension in college undergraduates, was utilized in this investigation with the researchers’ consent. Nine professionals endorsed the inventory validation, which revealed internal solid coherence and medium to good content accuracy (Chu & Li, 2022). The preliminary evaluation showed this investigation’s remarkable internal reliability despite the small sample population. The 42 questions that made up the inventory were broken down into four sub-scales, each of which included ten items (Almahasees et al., 2021). These sub-scales covered stress and strain, personal anxiety, academic pressure, and stressful events. After reading each topic, respondents were instructed to use a 5-point Likert to indicate how frequently they encountered the sign, circumstance, or issue.

The participants were not required in the initial edition to provide answers depending on their experiences within a specific time range. However, this investigation requested individuals to think about their position in the previous two weeks before digital training began and in the last two weeks when they answered the survey to better assist them in remembering their experience (Chu & Li, 2022). According to the handbook, the sub-scale values were determined by the average total ratings in each variable. Still, the overall score, spanning from 30 and 150, was selected by adding the item values (Fabriz et al., 2021). A more excellent rating suggests more anxiety in one exists.

The current study compared the degrees of daily exercise, cognitive discomfort, and personal life anxiety across the in-class education time and the internet education session during the COVID-19 epidemic to examine the possible effects of school cancellations on learners’ bodily and psychological health (Fabriz et al., 2021). This research may be the earliest to look into this topic among college graduates in Taipei. The predictions were partially confirmed, with results demonstrating that university graduates exercised much less during the online study session than they did during the in-class learning time (Chu & Li, 2022). Their psychological health remained unaffected before the outbreak of Corona Virus Pandemic

This study found that degrees of intellectual activity among university learners were more negatively impacted throughout the digital studying period, which is particularly relevant given that the COVID-19 outbreak may drastically alter our health habits. Only 34% of participants in this research were able to accrue at least 160 minutes of MVPA each week throughout the digital learning time frame, compared to prior investigations that showed 80% of college graduates could sustain a baseline of Moderate – intensity during the lockdown (Hamdan & Amorri, 2022). Current systematical assessment consistently displayed a reduction in textures in university students during closure (Chu & Li, 2022). The respondents were markedly unresponsive and engaged in a frequent workout for less than 30% of the time that they generally did during the external educational period.

Due to the relocation of all tutorial hall activities online and the prohibition on accessing school gyms in scholastic suspensions, college students may have found it more challenging to maintain their fitness routines and regular involvement in sports. However, since digital instruction may require devoting a lot of energy to utilizing electronic devices, their time spent exercising could have been replaced with laziness (Fabriz et al., 2021). Additionally, other actions used during the virtual education time, such as the shutdown of all amusement and recreation facilities, social isolation, and internal travel limitations, might concurrently and considerably diminish their ability to participate in daily intellectual activity.

Even while previous studies have repeatedly demonstrated a decrease in overall regular exercise throughout the COVID-19 epidemic or classroom closings, little focus has been placed on how it may affect various degrees of the general movement (Chu & Li, 2022). According to the results following other studies, the drop in aerobic fitness was more pronounced in reduced activities. Information repeatedly shows that a decline in daily exercise during a lockout or school closing would increase with a drop in severity (Fabriz et al., 2021). This result may be familiar, considering that college students frequently use public transit or trek to and from their campuses. Their strolling time may be drastically reduced due to the termination of physical courses, resulting in a sharp decline in LPA.

The limited population size resulting from the individual’s poor participation percentage is one of this report’s drawbacks. Face-to-face recruiting was not feasible for this research because it was conducted during the internet learning session. As a result, it was impossible guarantee the caliber of the participants’ replies. For example, some individuals omitted several assessment topics or just finished a portion of the survey (Fabriz et al., 2021). As a result, some data were skipped in the study. The depiction of the data is yet another drawback. It could be challenging to generalize the findings because the University of Healthcare Promotion served as the recruitment site for most respondents. For additional investigation, a tiered, more equal selection is required.

In conclusion, college students’ psychological state is unaffected by campus closings even when their daily activity levels throughout the virtual learning session dramatically decline. Moreover, the male community should receive a lot of focus since it has a different influence on them than it does on women regarding the greater frequency of physical exercise. These findings give medical practitioners and academic institutions crucial knowledge for creating preventative initiatives that enhance physical activity, particularly among male undergraduate learners. Despite being no variation in life pressure or mental suffering between two training sessions, it is advised to closely examine the long-term changes in cognitive health, given the link between fitness and psychiatric disease.

Almahasees, Z., Mohsen, K., & Amin, M. O. (2021). Faculty’s and students’ perceptions of online learning during COVID-19 . Frontiers in Education , 6 . Web.

Chu, Y.-H., & Li, Y.-C. (2022). The impact of online learning on physical and mental health in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic . International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 19 (5), 2966. Web.

Fabriz, S., Mendzheritskaya, J., & Stehle, S. (2021). Impact of synchronous and asynchronous settings of online teaching and learning in Higher Education on students’ learning experience during COVID-19 . Frontiers in Psychology , 12( 7 ), 3920. Web.

Hamdan, K., & Amorri, A. (2022). The impact of online learning strategies on students’ academic performance . E-Learning and Digital Education in the Twenty-First Centuryn,15( 30 ) 1215. Web.

Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, April 27). COVID-19: The Impact on Education. https://ivypanda.com/essays/covid-19-the-impact-on-education/

"COVID-19: The Impact on Education." IvyPanda , 27 Apr. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/covid-19-the-impact-on-education/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'COVID-19: The Impact on Education'. 27 April.

IvyPanda . 2024. "COVID-19: The Impact on Education." April 27, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/covid-19-the-impact-on-education/.

1. IvyPanda . "COVID-19: The Impact on Education." April 27, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/covid-19-the-impact-on-education/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "COVID-19: The Impact on Education." April 27, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/covid-19-the-impact-on-education/.

Government Shutdown and Its Impact on Tourism
The US Government Shutdown
Federal Government Shutdown in 2011
Effects of the U.S. Government Shutdown on the African-American Communities
In-Class & Multi-Lesson Academic Intervention Plan
Sociology In-class: Dude You’re a Fag
Google+ Shut-Down and Its Causing Changes
In-class Reaction Paper: Rwandan Genocide
Closure of the Clyde oil refinery
Group Activities for Young English Learners
Pre-School Access: Impact on Kindergarten Outcomes
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Lincoln Park: Educational Attainment
"The Price You Pay for College" by Lieber
Interprofessional Education: The Interdisciplinary Events

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

10 COVID-19’s Affect on Education, Specifically in High Schools

Melissa Kostecki

Introduction

Our country, The United States of America, has been heavily impacted by the global pandemic, COVID-19, in numerous ways. One major aspect of our country that has had to heavily adjust to these new safety protocols is our education system, specifically high schools. A typical day of high school no longer looks like a day from 8 am to 3 pm, with extracurricular activities following school to socialize. Now, high schools all around the United States have had to switch to virtual learning, to protect students’ and teachers’ health. This dramatic change in high schools has been challenging, but it has shown how strong our education system is. COVID-19 has challenged and modified the way high schools are now functioning by forcing online learning technology to advance rapidly, having to introduce and create new ways of learning, and adjusting the education system to the new norms of our society. This topic relates to STS because without the technology we have today, virtual learning would not be possible. Advancements in learning technology have allowed high schools around the world to function during this time.

Impact on Learning Technology in Secondary Education

seen below is a student working with the online application during COVID-19.

To begin, a major part that high school systems have had to change is the learning technology being used to hold virtual classes. High schools and technology companies have had to figure out quickly what is needed to make virtual learning easy and available to all students. Holding virtual classes requires high schools to have various online learning resources to help students succeed and stay on track during this time. The main application used by most high school students is called Zoom . Zoom is an online communication application that is used to hold virtual classes. Teachers have many tools avail able on this application to help make virtual classes more interactive. Certain features that teachers enjoy include, “Many teachers take advantage of the Zoom feature that allows for recording conversations and saving chat transcripts so students can refer to them later” ( Lieberman 2). Zoom is an easy-to-use application that allows high school teachers to interact with students by sharing their screens with the class and viewing their students through web came ras. But, with most high schoo ls around the country using this tool, it has forced Zoom to advance its technology very rapidly so that it’s able to cater to the number of users that need it.

The rapid increase in Zoom users has challenged the application. Lieberman (2020) noted, “The surge of new users, including 90,000 schools and the rapid increase in users has also led to increased scrutiny of the security limitations” (1). Clearly, there has been a rapid increase in the number of high schools that are relying on this application, which has caused slight defects as Zoom continues to improve its system. But, without this technology, it would make learning online much more difficult and could cause some students to fall behind in school. Luckily, with learning technology advancements like Zoom, virtual learning is manageable and more interactive.

Creating New Technology to Make High School Learning Interactive

It is evident that high school students are concerned about their futures and they feel that what their school may be doing is not enough for them to stay on track. So, from this information, it’s evident that students’ futures may have to be put slightly on pause for them to get back on track. High schools around the United States should begin to implement online resources to help high school students stay on track with their goal of college. Resources can include how to study for standardized tests and faculty helping students with their college applications. As our education system continues to endeavor during this time, each day more and more new learning techniques continue to be implemented to help students. But, it’s evident that more needs to be done to make students feel prepared for the future during this time. As high schools continue to advance their online systems, more resources will likely be available to help students thinking about life after high school during this time.

Impact on High School Student’s Social Interaction & Mental Health

“This dramatic change in high schools has been challenging, but it has shown how strong our education system is.”

As our society begins to adjust to the new norms of our society of maintaining six feet apart from others, wearing a mask in public, and staying home if you’re sick, our interaction with each other has changed. A main part of the high school experience is interacting with classmates inside and outside of the classroom ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1). High school students are missing out on memories like prom, graduation, and sporting events. All of this uncertainty for when high school will return to normal has created a lot of anxiety and stress for students ( Kreitz 1). But, being in a global pandemic gives students the only option of dealing with this situation and creating solutions. High schools around the country have begun making solutions like, making their extracurricular clubs meet virtually. One high school in Texas has shifted their club fair to be virtual, so students still have the opportunity to stay in contact with peers and make new friends. A teacher Vivian Hernandez (2020) describes the importance of social interaction during this time, “When educators sponsor a student club, they’re building community, they bring students together, student clubs do not have to stop because of COVID-19, they may be more important now than ever” (1). Interaction with others will help make high school students feel less lonely during this time. High schools around the country are creating new ways to hold regular student sessions like this, which shows how high schools can come together to support one another.

Luckily, thanks to the technology we have, high school students can easily learn from home. Without computers, e-textbooks, and online applications, it would be impossible to continue to go through the school year. And although students are missing the structure of the normal school day, this will only make high school institutions stronger for the future. Dr. Michael Krüger, Coordinator of the International Education Management noted in an interview that despite the complexity of the new teaching and learning arrangements, he is surprised how focused everyone is and how much has been achieved. Krüger believes the lessons learned from these experiences will have a lasting impact on their teaching and help strengthen the educational system ( Wawa , 1). As an education system, all members of high schools have worked to strengthen their learning techniques and to adapt to the new norms of our society during this time.

Connection to STS Theory

The topic of how education has changed in high schools across the country due to COVID-19 relates to the STS theory of social constructivism. Social constructivism describes that science & technology are importantly social, that they are always active, and that they do not provide a direct route from nature to ideas. The main aspects of this theory is seen throughout this chapter. The technology that has been created to make virtual learning easier and more engaging was shaped by teachers, students, and parents’ biases based on what they believed to be the best way of learning virtually. Also, science and technology are very active during this time and are constantly changing since as we begin to test new ways of learning, our high schools are learning what methods are efficient and what is not, changing them accordingly. Lastly, the technology being used is not an actual description of nature and is not displaying the normal techniques that would be used to teach high school students.

To conclude, COVID-19 has impacted the high schools around our country significantly. But, through the technology available to students, the education system has been able to reach new limits and introduce new ways of learning using virtual-technology that have never been used before. Now, new ways of learning will be implemented into school days when things go back to normal. Although there are rising concerns about students not performing as well or being prepared, high schools around the country have been able to adapt to a one of a kind situation and have been able to continue to teach through the learning technology that is available to our society. Students’ social interaction and mental health has also shifted during this time, but communities are coming together to support one another and create new ways to interact so that each student feels happy. COVID-19 has challenged and modified the way high schools are now functioning, by forcing learning technology to advance rapidly, having to introduce and create new ways of learning, and adjusting the education system to the new norms of our society. Through this global pandemic, we’ve seen how strong our education system in high schools really is.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Operating schools during COVID-19: CDC’s Considerations. ” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/schools.html .

Chick, Robert C., et al. “Using Technology to Maintain the Education of Residents during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Surgical Education , vol. 77, no. 4, 2020, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1931720420300842.

Fox, Michelle. “Go to college or skip it? High school students face a new reality due to coronavirus.” CNBC, 24 Apr. 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/high-school-students-face-a-new-reality-due-to-coronavirus.html.

Hernandez, Vivian. “Creating Online Clubs for Students During Remote Learning.” Edutopia, 28 Sep. 2020, https://www.edutopia.org/article/creating-online-clubs-students-during-remote-learning .

Kreitz, Mary. “The Impact of COVID-19 on high school students.” Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health, 2020, https://www.childandadolescent.org/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-high-school-students/.

Lieberman, Mark. “Zoom Use Skyrockets During Coronavirus Pandemic, Prompting Wave of Problems for Schoo ls .” E ducationWeek , 3 Apr. 2020, https://www.edweek.org/technology/zoom-use-skyrockets-during-coronavirus-pandemic-prompting-wave-of-problems-for-schools/2020/04 Accessed 4 Dec. 2020.

Wawa, Brenda. “COVID-19 and Higher Education: Interview with Dr. Michael Krüger .” Academic Impact, 2020, https://academicimpact.un.org/content/covid-19-and-higher-education-interview-dr-michael-kr%C3%BCger .

“Woman in Pink Shirt Sitting by the Table While Smiling” by Julia M Cameron is in the Public Domain

“Photo of Child Sitting by the Table While Looking at the Imac” by Julia M Cameron is in the P ublic Domain

COVID-19: Success Within Devastation Copyright © 2020 by Melissa Kostecki is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Impact of COVID-19 on Education: Virtual Class Experience

Ieee account.

Change Username/Password
Update Address

Purchase Details

Payment Options
Order History
View Purchased Documents

Profile Information

Communications Preferences
Profession and Education
Technical Interests
US & Canada: +1 800 678 4333
Worldwide: +1 732 981 0060
Contact & Support
About IEEE Xplore
Accessibility
Terms of Use
Nondiscrimination Policy
Privacy & Opting Out of Cookies

A not-for-profit organization, IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. © Copyright 2024 IEEE - All rights reserved. Use of this web site signifies your agreement to the terms and conditions.

Colorado State University

Tuesday, April 30

University Source
Agricultural Sciences
Health and Human Sciences
Liberal Arts
Natural Sciences
Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering
Warner College of Natural Resources
Office of Engagement and Extension

Interactive map: Ram Stories highlights how pandemic shaped lives of CSU students

By Allison Sylte

The Ram Stories interactive map is embedded above. If you are having trouble accessing the map, visit: https://col.st/9mqQn

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic impacted virtually everyone, if you ask 65 different people about their experiences, you’ll hear 65 different stories.

That’s especially true on the Colorado State University campus, where students grappled with everything from the challenges associated with remote learning to anxiety about their families’ health to discovering what it means to be an adult in a changing world. That’s why a team of CSU historians sought to capture these experiences for Ram Stories, an oral history project that preserves interviews with 65 students who offered firsthand accounts of what happened in their lives during the year 2020 and beyond.

“Overall, I found the students had extraordinary resilience – it’s really hard to grow up when you’re doing it in front of a computer with no one around,” said Ruth M. Alexander, a history professor and primary investigator for the project.

While other organizations and institutions have created oral histories for a variety of communities , Alexander said CSU is the only university she’s aware of that is doing a project centered around the student experience.

This project is a collaboration between the CSU Libraries and CSU Public and Environmental History Center. It received funding from the CSU President’s Office, and the hope is that the lessons learned from the student interviews can shape policy as universities prepare for future pandemics and other disruptive events.

“This project is an actual manifestation of primary sources to back up some of the broader claims and generalizations you heard during the pandemic,” said Jade Felthoven, the student intern who conducted many of the interviews. “It’s one thing to assume that remote learning can be difficult, but it’s quite another to hear someone explain why in their own words.”

Interactive Ram Stories map highlights student experiences during COVID-19

To showcase the student interviews, Felthoven and Josh Reyling,who leads the Geospatial Centroid Help Desk, created an interactive story map that includes audio recordings and a full transcript of each conversation. The goal was to speak to students from a variety of majors and backgrounds.

This included international students, as well as a student who was studying abroad in New Zealand just as the worldwide lockdowns began. Other stories include a student who discovered their gender identity during lockdown, as well as another who learned lessons about what her race meant to her amid the George Floyd protests in summer 2020.

“The students talked really eloquently about what they went through, and the ways they knew everyone else around them was going through similar – but also profoundly different – experiences,” said Mark Shelstad, the head of digital and archive services for the CSU Libraries.

Despite their challenges, the Ram Stories team said students were largely complimentary toward CSU’s COVID-19 response, as well as hopeful about what is to come.

“A lot of people mourned lost experiences,” Felthoven said. “But I’d say holistically, they were still positive and optimistic.”

For the next phase of the project, Alexander is interviewing high-level CSU administrators who played key roles in responding to the pandemic at CSU and research scientists who pursued innovations in masking, testing and vaccine development, facilitating recovery from the pandemic at CSU while making critical contributions to global infectious disease knowledge and technologies.

“This COVID project is probably the most meaningful oral history project I’ve led,” Alexander said. “To hear how young people from 18-22 got themselves through such a unique period in time really sheds light on what they’re capable of, and can hopefully help inform administrators about what kind of support they’ll need in the future.”

Tags assigned to this story

google+ -->

Allison Sylte

Impact of COVID-19 'will affect exam results well into the 2030s,' says study

E ducational damage from the COVID-19 pandemic will have an impact on school pupils well into the 2030s, according to a study involving the University of Strathclyde.

The research, covering schools in England, predicts that fewer than four in 10 pupils in 2030 will achieve a grade 5 or above in their English and mathematics GCSEs—lower than the 45.3% of pupils who achieved this benchmark in 2022/23.

Based on the results, the researchers estimate that the UK's relative income mobility levels will decline by 12–15% for generations of pupils leaving school over the next decade, a significant drop by international standards.

The study is the first to chart the way in which school closures during the pandemic hindered children's socio-emotional and cognitive skills at the ages of five, 11, and 14, and predicts the impact this will have on future GCSE prospects and later life outcomes.

Socio-emotional skills include the ability to engage in positive social interactions, regulate emotions and maintain attention. Cognitive skills are measured by how well children perform in academic tests, reflecting math, reading and writing skills.

Esme Lillywhite, of Strathclyde's Institute of Education, a partner in the study, said, "Compared with most other nations, England's pandemic response was heavily focused on academic catch-up with less emphasis on socio-emotional skills, extracurricular support, and well-being. Much more could be gained by closer international collaboration to learn what approaches have been promising elsewhere."

The research found that socio-emotional skills are as important as cognitive skills for young people's GCSE results. For example, 20% of the best performing pupils in cognitive tests at age 14, with average socio-emotional skills, fail to go on to attain five good GCSEs. Teenagers with strong socio-emotional skills were much more likely to achieve basic GCSEs.

A gender divide in the importance of different skills emerges in the teenage years. For boys, cognitive skills at age 14 are twice as important as socio-emotional skills in determining future GCSE prospects; for girls the opposite is true, with socio-emotional skills 50% more impactful than cognitive skills.

The analysis uses the latest econometric techniques to develop a model of skill formation, based on just under 19,000 pupils in the Millennium Cohort Study. This was applied to later pupil cohorts to predict how GCSE results will be impacted by disruption from school closures during the pandemic.

Persistent gaps

An international review as part of the research concludes that COVID-19 amplified long-term persistent education gaps across a range of OECD countries, including the UK.

The report proposes several low-cost policies with the potential to improve children's outcomes, including: a national program of trained undergraduate student tutors helping to boost the foundational skills of pupils, and enabling undergraduates to consider a career in teaching; rebalancing Ofsted inspections to explicitly focus on how schools are performing for pupils from under-resourced backgrounds and credit schools excelling when serving under-resourced communities; rebalancing the school calendar to improve teacher well-being, prevent holiday hunger, improve pupil prospects and help parents with child-care during the long summer break.

The University of Exeter and the London School of Economics were also partners in the research.

Dr. Emily Tanner, Program Head at the Nuffield Foundation said, "The mounting evidence on the long-term impact of learning loss on young people's development shows how important it is for students to develop socio-emotional skills alongside academic learning. The insights from this report on timing and gender provide a useful basis for targeting effective interventions."

More information: Lee Elliot Major et al, A generation at risk. Rebalancing education in the post-pandemic era . (2024)

Provided by University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

IMAGES

≫ Impact of Covid-19 on Education System in India Free Essay Sample on
Social Sciences
COVID-19 Survey Aims to Understand Pandemic’s Impact on Grad Students
UN/DESA Policy Brief #85: Impact of COVID-19: perspective from
The Impact Of COVID-19 on International Students Perceptions
≫ Nationalism and Covid-19 Pandemic Free Essay Sample on Samploon.com

COMMENTS

PDF The Impact of Covid-19 on Student Experiences and Expectations
Results show large negative effects across many dimensions. Due to COVID-19: 13% of students have delayed graduation, 40% lost a job, internship, or a job offer, and 29% expect to earn less at age 35. Moreover, these effects have been highly heterogeneous.
The impact of COVID-19 on student experiences and expectations
Our findings on academic outcomes indicate that COVID-19 has led to a large number of students delaying graduation (13%), withdrawing from classes (11%), and intending to change majors (12%). Moreover, approximately 50% of our sample separately reported a decrease in study hours and in their academic performance.
The pandemic has had devastating impacts on learning. What ...
As we outline in our new research study released in January, the cumulative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' academic achievement has been large. We tracked changes in math and ...
How is COVID-19 affecting student learning?
The long-term effects of COVID-19 are still unknown. In some ways, our findings show an optimistic picture: In reading, on average, the achievement percentiles of students in fall 2020 were ...
How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay
Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays. Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic. The global impact of COVID-19, the disease ...
Impact of COVID-19 on University Students: An Analysis of Its Influence
The evidence presented in this paper reflects the clear impact that COVID-19 has had on the participating university students, a sector of the population that has been greatly affected in terms of mental health by the pandemic . In this study, we examined the impact that this has caused (COVID-19) in different personal factors: life ...
The Perceived Impact of COVID-19 on Student Well-Being and the
H1: The perceived impact of COVID-19 on student concerns for degree completion will negatively predict levels of student well-being. The Perceived Impact of COVID-19 on Student Concerns for Future Job Prospects and Student Well-Being. COVID-19 has triggered a worldwide economic recession . With the lockdown measures implemented by many ...
The Effect of COVID-19 on Education
The transition to an online education during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may bring about adverse educational changes and adverse health consequences for children and young adult learners in grade school, middle school, high school, college, and professional schools. The effects may differ by age, maturity, and socioeconomic ...
Frontiers
Despite these projections, the empirical data to evaluate the actual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning is limited. Engzell et al. (2021) used national assessments conducted before (January to February) and after (June) the COVID-19 lockdown in the Netherlands. They compared student progress in mathematics, reading, and ...
The impact of COVID-19 on student achievement and what it ...
Understanding these impacts and how best to support students' social and emotional needs after the huge disruption of COVID-19 will be essential. Many students may face greater food insecurity ...
Positive Impacts of COVID-19
Introduction. The global outbreak of COVID-19 has certainly taken an overwhelming toll on everyone. People have lost their jobs, their homes, and even their lives. There is no getting past the fact that the overall impact on the world has been negative, but it is important to realize that positive aspects of the pandemic have been overshadowed ...
The Impact of COVID-19 on Peer Relationships: Insights from ...
In the spring of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, governments took drastic measures to curb the virus spread, including shutting down educational institutions. This sudden and unexpected closure of schools not only disrupted the education of millions of students but also deprived them of their primary social environment ...
Covid-19's Impact on Students' Academic and Mental Well-Being
For Black students, the number spikes to 25 percent. "There are many reasons to believe the Covid-19 impacts might be larger for children in poverty and children of color," Kuhfeld wrote in the study. Their families suffer higher rates of infection, and the economic burden disproportionately falls on Black and Hispanic parents, who are less ...
9 Impact of COVID-19 on K-12 Students
The negative effects that COVID-19 has had on education could impact students for many years to come. The loss of learning that the pandemic has caused students could lead to a decrease in wages they earn in the future, a lower national GDP, and also make it harder for students to find jobs. Students who are affected by COVID-19 could have a ...
'When Normal Life Stopped': College Essays Reflect a Turbulent Year
This year's admissions essays became a platform for high school seniors to reflect on the pandemic, race and loss. ... added a question inviting students to write about the impact of Covid-19 on ...
A retrospective analysis of the perceived impact of the COVID-19
The literature finds that "instead of writing papers, [student mothers] are likely to devote time to homeschooling children and doing household chores" (Staniscuaski et al., 2020). ... Given the dearth of literature on the impact of COVID-19 on student parents, this survey is exploratory. In order to reach a broad audience in an online only ...
How has COVID-19 Affected Students?
Health of students. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when schools were closed and little was known about the wide range of effects caused by SARS-CoV-2, there were relatively few COVID-19 ...
Writing about COVID-19 in a college essay GreatSchools.org
Students working on college admission essays often struggle to figure out how to write about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic's impact. The different sections have differing goals.
COVID-19: The Impact on Education Research Paper
The impact of online learning on physical and mental health in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 19 (5), 2966. Web.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Education: A Meta-Narrative Review
In a recent study that examines the impact of COVID-19 at higher education (Bozkurt, ... Social networks analysis of the references in COVID-19 and education-related papers 2019-2020 ... anxiety, and coping strategies of students during COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Loss and Trauma. 2020; 25 (8):635-642. doi: 10.1080/15325024.2020.1769300 ...
10 COVID-19's Affect on Education, Specifically in High Schools
Connection to STS Theory. The topic of how education has changed in high schools across the country due to COVID-19 relates to the STS theory of social constructivism. Social constructivism describes that science & technology are importantly social, that they are always active, and that they do not provide a direct route from nature to ideas.
Impact of COVID-19 on Education: Virtual Class Experience
During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and colleges across the world shut down and education was transitioned from an in-person medium to an online medium. This transition was not planned, and the implementation was not perfect. This paper looks at data collected from students in India in July 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. The survey respondents included elementary school, middle school ...
Impacts of COVID-19 on Students Life
A long-lasting impact has been created by the notorious COVID-19 from which it'll take many months to recover if not years. The education industry has not been ignored and therefore the impact of COVID-19 on student life is visible. Whether it's the non-public lifetime of students or the environment of college and colleges, the coronavirus ...
How did COVID impact college students?
Interactive Ram Stories map highlights student experiences during COVID-19 To showcase the student interviews, Felthoven and Josh Reyling,who leads the Geospatial Centroid Help Desk, created an interactive story map that includes audio recordings and a full transcript of each conversation. The goal was to speak to students from a variety of ...
Investigating the Support-Oriented Schoolwork Changes and ...
Abstract. During the COVID-19 pandemic, school closures worldwide highlighted the existence of certain educational gaps. The sudden and unplanned shift to online learning accentuated challenges including social, emotional, and technical barriers that exacerbated the difficulties experienced by students with disabilities such as limitations on social interaction and technology access.
Societies
Over the last two years, the prolonged massive school closure due to COVID-19 has provoked significant constraints for refugee children. The present study aimed to investigate the perceptions of Greek pre-service teachers on refugee education during the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was addressed to 32 native university students (n = 32) who attended Education Departments in Western ...
The influence of medical students' life values on their perception of
The medical education and mental health of medical students has undoubtedly undergone changes in the transition to OL due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and factors associated with burnout, learning effectiveness, dissatisfaction with the quality of OL organization, and deterioration of medical education have been identified.
Impact of COVID-19 'will affect exam results well into the 2030s ...
Educational damage from the COVID-19 pandemic will have an impact on school pupils well into the 2030s, according to a study involving the University of Strathclyde. The research, covering schools ...
The Potential Impact of COVID‐19 on Student Learning and How Schools
There is no denying the impact that the coronravirus disease (COVID‐19) outbreak has had on many aspects of our lives. This article looks at the potential impact of COVID‐19 on student learning as schools abruptly morphed into virtual learning environments using data from several instructional, practice, and assessment solutions offered by Renaissance.

How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

10 Ways to Discover College Essay Ideas

College Admissions: Get a Step Ahead!

You May Also Like

Photos: Pro-Palestinian Student Protests

How to Win a Fulbright Scholarship

Honors Colleges and Programs

Find a Job in the Age of AI

Protests Boil Over on College Campuses

Supporting Low-Income College Applicants

Supporting Black Women in Higher Ed

Law Schools With the Highest LSATs

Today NAIA, Tomorrow Title IX?

The impact of COVID-19 on student achievement and what it may mean for educators

Covid-19’s Impact on Students’ Academic and Mental Well-Being

The Achievement Gap Is Likely to Widen

Disproportionate Impact on Students Living in Poverty and Students of Color

Impacts on Students’ Mental Health

3 Ways Teachers Can Prepare

‘When Normal Life Stopped’: College Essays Reflect a Turbulent Year

Nandini Likki

Grace Sundstrom

Ahmed AlMehri

Mina Rowland

Christine Faith Cabusay

Alexis Ihezue

Ivy Wanjiku

Mary Clare Marshall

Nora Frances Kohnhorst

Gracie Yong Ying Silides

Henry Thomas Egan

Anna Valades

People also looked at

Introduction

Literature review

Social-ecological model

Materials and methods

Survey design and administration

Analysis of survey data

Sample population

Study limitations

Results and discussion

Relationship

Effects on mental health

Coping resources

Recommendations

Data availability statement

Ethics statement

Author contributions

Conflict of interest

Publisher’s note

This article is part of the Research Topic

Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay

The CommonApp COVID-19 question

Counselor recommendations and school profiles

Writing about COVID-19 in your main essay

Homes Nearby

What should I write my college essay about?

COVID-19: The Impact on Education Research Paper

Methodology

10 COVID-19’s Affect on Education, Specifically in High Schools

Introduction

Impact on Learning Technology in Secondary Education

Creating New Technology to Make High School Learning Interactive

Impact on High School Student’s Social Interaction & Mental Health

Connection to STS Theory

Share This Book

Impact of COVID-19 on Education: Virtual Class Experience

Purchase Details

Profile Information

Colorado State University

Interactive map: Ram Stories highlights how pandemic shaped lives of CSU students

Interactive Ram Stories map highlights student experiences during COVID-19

Allison Sylte

Impact of COVID-19 'will affect exam results well into the 2030s,' says study

Persistent gaps

IMAGES

COMMENTS