Emotions and Reactions to the Confinement by COVID-19 of Children and Adolescents With High Abilities and Community Samples: A Mixed Methods Research Study

Abstract

The goal of this research is to know and compare the emotions and reactions to confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic in children and adolescents with high abilities and community samples. This is a mixed study with an exploratory reach that is descriptive, and which combines survey and qualitative methodologies to examine the emotions and reactions to confinement experiences of children and adolescents aged between 5 and 14 years. An online poll was designed with 46 questions, grouped into three sections: (1) General Data, (2) Reactions to the health contingencies of COVID-19, and (3) Positive and negative emotions. This last section was included the Oros’ positive emotions questionnaire (2014) and the scales of the negative effect of the PANAS Schedule positive and negative affect on children and adolescents between 8 and 14 years old (Sandin, 2003). Data were collected online with a convenience sample. Quantitative data were analyzed with the SPSS statistics program and qualitative data with Alceste software. Among the main findings is the fact that there are no significant differences between the groups by ability in terms of reactions and emotions; however, there are differences between age groups and sex. The study discusses the implications for educational intervention in situations like the current pandemic.

Experiences With Online Teaching and Psychological Adjustment of High-School Students at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Croatia

“…Apart from being theoretically meaningful, our results are in line with the rich empirical literature on the general stress and adjustment processes (e.g., Endler et al, 2000;Lazarus, 2000;DeLongis and Holtzman, 2005;Schneiderman et al, 2005;Wentzel et al, 2018). Moreover, several other recent studies dealing with COVID-19 related stressors have reported relationships of equal sign and comparable size between a range of operationalizations of stress experiences and specific psychological states measures or variously defined behavioral, health, or performance outcomes (e.g., Alemany-Arrebola et al, 2020;McCracken et al, 2020;Valadez et al, 2020;Xin et al, 2020).…”

“…As hypothesized, female students and those predominantly studying at the highest grade levels reported higher frequency and intensity of short-term emotional and psychosomatic difficulties. The results for the first function are expected and consistent with an extensive body of empirical literature showing the same direction of gender differences in a number of stressrelated outcomes (Schneiderman et al, 2005;Alemany-Arrebola et al, 2020;Valadez et al, 2020). However, male students at the final grade level scored highest on the dimension defined by the intensity of online teaching stressors.…”

“…Considerable empirical evidence has already been collected on the diverse emotional, health, and other consequences of the global COVID-19 crisis (e.g., Cachón-Zagalaz et al, 2020;Rettie and Daniels, 2020;Saha et al, 2020;Taylor et al, 2020;Valadez et al, 2020;Xin et al, 2020). Studies have reported heightened levels of stress, and unfavorable psychological states such as negative affect, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and violent, hostile, and addictive behavior, all of which have been found in the general population as well as among students and adolescents since the onset of the global pandemic (Alemany-Arrebola et al, 2020;Dubey et al, 2020;Li H. Y.et al, 2020;Li X. et al, 2020;McCracken et al, 2020;Richter, 2020).…”

Analysis and Psychoeducational Implications of the Behavior Factor During the COVID-19 Emergency

“…Well-adjusted use of technology in the teaching-learning process, its effect, and associated emotionality are important. Researchers are also concerned with the experiences of adaptational stress in students, teachers, and parents within this scenario ( Valadez et al, 2020 ). In complementary fashion, innovation in teaching processes, based on new technologies and methodologies, is of great interest ( de la Fuente, 2020c ).…”

The Impact of COVID-19 Instigated Changes on Loneliness of Teachers and Motivation–Engagement of Students: A Psychological Analysis of Education Sector

“…Educational psychology can be defined as a subgroup of psychology that specifically addresses education (de la Fuente et al, 2021). Educational psychology entails various aspects, such as the effects of COVID-19 on the development at certain stages (physical, socio-moral, motor, cognitive, and linguistic) (Liu et al, 2020), learning (Cachón-Zagalaz et al, 2020), stress caused by changes for students, teachers, and parents (Valadez et al, 2020), changes in educational contexts, and achievement (Martarelli et al, 2021), and rise of technological means (Obrero-Gaitán et al, 2020).…”