Student and Faculty Coping and Impacts on Academic Success in Response to COVID-19

Authors

  • Jacqueline A. Goldman Oregon State University, USA
  • Stephanie C. Bell Bell Delta State University, USA

Keywords:

Coping Strategies, COVID-19, College Student Learning, Teaching

Abstract

This study explored how faculty and students differed in their coping strategies to handle the severe stress brought on by COVID-19 and how this stress impacted student academic achievement. For this study,103 students and faculty at a rural southern university participated in the study where they reported on their coping mechanisms during the pandemic. Student grade data from midterm and final course grades were collected to measure academic achievement. Results of the study indicated that students were more likely than faculty to engage in maladaptive coping strategies, specifically emotional disengagement. The findings have theoretical and practical implications for teaching in higher education such as consideration of how students cope with severe stress compared to faculty and how it impacts academic achievement.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • Jacqueline A. Goldman, Oregon State University, USA

    JACQUELINE A. GOLDMAN, PhD, teaches in the School of Psychological Science at Oregon State University. Her main research interests are in motivation and first-generation college student academic achievement. Email: goldmja@oregonstate.edu.

  • Stephanie C. Bell Bell, Delta State University, USA

    STEPHANIE C. BELL, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, ACS, teaches in the CACREP-accredited counseling program at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS. Her main research interest is the effects of acquaintance rape perpetrated against college-attending women. E-mail: sbell@deltastate.edu

References

Abdullah, M. C., Elias, H., Uli, J., & Mahyuddin, R. (2010). Relationship between

coping and university adjustment and academic achievement amongst first year undergraduates in a Malaysian public university. International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 3(11), 379-392.

Alimoglu, M. K., Gurpinar, E., Mamakli, S., & Aktekin, M. (2011). Ways of coping

as predictors of satisfaction with curriculum and academic success in medical school. Advances in Physiology Education, 35(1), 33-38.

https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00100.2010

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Problem-focused coping. In APA

dictionary of psychology. Armitage, R., & Nellums, L. B. (2020). Considering inequalities in the school closure response to COVID-19. The Lancet Global Health, 8(5), e644. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2FS2214-109X(20)30116-9

Baloran, E. T. (2020). Knowledge, attitudes, anxiety, and coping strategies of

students during COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 25(8), 635-642. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2020.1769300

Bates, T. (2020, April 7). What should we be doing about online learning when

social distancing ends? Online Learning and Distance Education Resources. https://www.tonybates.ca/2020/04/07

Bao, W. (2020). COVID‐19 and online teaching in higher education: A case study

of Peking University. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2(2), 113–115. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.191

Ben-Zur, H. (2009). Coping styles and affect. International Journal of Stress Management,16(2), 87–101. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015 731

Berenson, R., Boyles, G., & Weaver, A. (2008). Emotional intelligence as a

predictor of success in online learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 9(2), 385-395.

https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v9i2.385

Carver, C. S., Pozo, C., Harris, S. D., Noriega, V., Scheier, M. F., Robinson, D. S.,

... & Clark, K. C. (1999). How coping mediates the effect of optimism on distress: a study of women with early stage breast cancer. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 375-390. https://doi.org/ 10.1037/0022-3514.65.2.375

Carver, C. S. (2013). COPE Inventory [Measurement Instrument Database for

the Social Science].

Colleen, F. (2020, April 23). How lenient, or not, should professors be with

students right now? Inside Higher Ed.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/23/

Epping-Jordan, J. E., Compas, B. E., & Howell, D. C. (1994). Predictors of

cancer progression in young adult men and women: Avoidance, intrusive thoughts, and psychological symptoms. Health Psychology, 13, 539- 547. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.13.6.539

Flaherty, C. (2020). Working from home during COVID-19 proves

challenging for faculty members. Inside Higher Ed.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/24/

Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged

community sample. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 21, 219-239. PMID: 7410799.

Greer, T. M. (2007). Measuring coping strategies among African Americans:

An exploration of the latent structure of the COPE inventory. Journal of Black Psychology, 33(3), 260-277.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798407302539

Gustems-Carnicer, J., Calderón, C., & Calderón-Garrido, D. (2019). Stress,

coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students. European Journal of Teacher Education, 42(3), 375-390. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2019.1576629

Iarossi, G. (2006). The power of survey design: A user’s guide for managing surveys, interpreting results, and influencing respondents.

Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Johns, S., & Stephanie Hawkes. (2021). A look at empathy, university

belonging, and intersectionality: How to support a diverse student body amid the COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, 9(2), x-xiii. https://doi.org/10.32674/jise.v9i2.2407

Johnson, N., Veletsianos, G., & Seaman, J. (2020). US faculty and

administrators' experiences and approaches in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Online Learning, 24(2), 6-21.

https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v24i2.2285

Kadakia, P., & Bradshaw, A. (2020, May 6). Equitable exams during Covid-

Inside Higher Ed.

https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/05/06/changes-instructors-should-consider-administering-and-grading-exams-during-covid

Keown, S., Carroll, R., & Smothers, M. (2021) Real time responses: Front line

educators’ view to the challenges the pandemic has posed on students and faculty. Frontiers in Education, 6(1) 8.

https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.595847

Lazarus, R. S. (1999). Stress and emotion: A new synthesis. Springer

Publishing Company.

Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer

Publishing Company.

Lee, J. (2020). Mental health effects of school closures during COVID-19. The

Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 4(6), 421.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30109-7

Lee, A. M., Wong, J. G., McAlonan, G. M., Cheung, V., Cheung, C., Sham, P. C.,

… & Chua, S. E. (2007). Stress and psychological distress among SARS survivors 1year after the outbreak. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 52(4), 233-240. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674370705200405

Lipson, S. K., Lattie, E. G., & Eisenberg, D. (2019). Increased rates of mental

health service utilization by US college students: 10-year population-level trends (2007–2017). Psychiatric Services, 70(1), 60-63. https://doi:10.1176/appi.ps.201800332

MacCann, C., Fogarty, G. J., Zeidner, M., & Roberts, R. D. (2011). Coping

mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and academic achievement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36(1), 60-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2010.11.002

Moskowitz, J. T., Folkman, S., Collette, L., & Vittinghoff, E. (1996). Coping and

mood during AIDS-related caregiving and bereavement. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 18(1), 49-57. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02903939

Neria, Y., Nandi, A., & Galea, S. (2008). Post-traumatic stress disorder following disasters: a systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 38(4), 467. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291707001353

Ozerbas, M. A., & Erdogan, B. H. (2016). The effect of the digital classroom on

academic success and online technologies self-efficacy. Educational Technology & Society, 19(4), 203-212.

Pfefferbaum, B., & North, C. S. (2020). Mental health and the Covid-19 pandemic.

New England Journal of Medicine, 383(6), 510-512.

https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp2008017

Pickens, B. C., Mckinney, R., & Bell, S. C. (2019). A Hierarchical Model of Coping

in the College Student Population. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, 7(2), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.32674/jise.v7i2.1210

Rafidah, K., Azizah, A., Norzaidi, M. D., Chong, S. C., Salwani, M. I., & Noraini, I.

(2009). Stress and academic performance: Empirical evidence from

university students. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 13(1), 37.

Retta, M. (2020, April 10). How colleges are grading students during the

Coronavirus. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/10/830622398/

Rohman, M., Marji, D. A. S., Sugandi, R. M., & Nurhadi, D. (2020). Online

learning in higher education during Covid-19 pandemic: Students’

perceptions. Journal of Talent Development and Excellence, 12(2), 3644-3651.

Sahu, P. (2020). Closure of universities due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-

: impact on education and mental health of students and academic staff.

Cureus, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7541.

Shapiro, H. B., Lee, C. H., Roth, N. E. W., Li, K., Çetinkaya-Rundel, M., &

Canelas, D. A. (2017). Understanding the massive open online course (MOOC) student experience: An examination of attitudes, motivations, and barriers. Computers & Education, 110, 35-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.03.003

Smidt, E., Li, R., Bolton, D. & Rinehimer, E. (2021). Faculty Experiences

During the COVID-19 Pandemic Forced Transition to Remote Teaching: Impact on Future Faculty Support and Development. In E. Langran & L. Archambault (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 295-303). Online, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Snyder, C. R., & Pulvers, K. M. (2001). Dr. Seuss, the Coping Machine, and

“Oh, The Places You’ll Go”. In C. R. Snyder (Ed.), Coping with stress: Effective people and processes (pp. 3-29). Oxford University Press.

Son, C., Hegde, S., Smith, A., Wang, X., & Sasangohar, F. (2020). Effects of

COVID-19 on college students’ mental health in the United States: Interview survey study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(9), e21279. https://doi.10.2196/21279

Sovacool, B. K., Axsen, J., & Sorrell, S. (2018). Promoting novelty, rigor, and

style in energy social science: towards codes of practice for appropriate methods and research design. Energy Research & Social Science, 45, 12-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.07.007

Strenna, L., Chahraoui, K., and Vinay, A. (2009). Santé psychique chez les

étudiants de première année d'école supérieure de commerce: liens avec le stress de l'orientation professionnelle, l'estime de soi et le coping [Mental health in first-year business school students: Links with career stress, self-esteem and coping]. L'orientation Scolaire et Professionnelle 38(2), 183–204. https://doi.org/10.4000/osp.1902

Svrluga, S. (2020, April 6). Colleges are ditching letter grades this spring, but

not all students are on board with ‘ungrading’ The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/04/06/college-grading-coronavirus/

Turner-Cobb, J. M., Gore-Felton, C., Marouf, F., Koopman, C., Kim, P.,

Israelski, D., & Spiegel, D. (2002). Coping, social support, and attachment style as psychosocial correlates of adjustment in men and women with HIV/AIDS. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 25(4), 337-353. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015814431481

Wang, X., Hegde, S., Son, C., Keller, B., Smith, A., & Sasangohar, F. (2020). Investigating mental health of US college students during the

COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional survey study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(9), e22817. https://doi.org/10.2196/22817

World Health Organization. (2020). WHO Director-General's opening remarks

at the media briefing on COVID-19-11 March 2020.

Zeidner, M., Matthews, G., & Roberts, R. D. (2009). What we know about

emotional intelligence: How it affects learning, work, relationships, and our mental health. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Additional Files

Published

2022-03-29

How to Cite

Student and Faculty Coping and Impacts on Academic Success in Response to COVID-19. (2022). Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, 11(1), 74-91. https://ojed.org/jise/article/view/3730