Helpful or Harmful? The Role of Personality Traits in Student Experiences of the COVID-19 Crisis and School Closure

Abstract

Little is known about the individual differences in student experiences and expectations of the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting school closures. Yet, as the crisis may have uniquely impacted students, knowledge about their personalities is highly relevant. In a sample of 347 Flemish students, this study explored the association between personality traits and differences in responses to the crisis. The Big Five personality traits of students were assessed in January 2020, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Students were reassessed in June 2020 with a set of items related to well-being, remote learning, and family and social life. The results suggested that more conscientious students (showing a better perception of remote learning) and more open students (considering the period as an opportunity to learn new skills) adjusted well to the changes induced by the crisis. On the contrary, students high in neuroticism (showing higher stress levels) were harmed.

Exploring educational impacts among pre, during and post COVID-19 lockdowns from students with different personality traits

“…Most of existing research (Iterbeke & De Witte, 2022 ; Sahinidis & Tsaknis, 2021 ; Steinberger, 2021 ) revealed that neuroticism has a positive relationship with academic anxiety, while openness has a negative one. However, researchers obtained conflicting conclusions in other personality traits due to interindividual differences.…”

“…Studies have investigated the effects of personality traits on educational outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on psychological factors such as class satisfaction and academic anxiety. Sahinidis and Tsaknis ( 2021 ), Iterbeke and De Witte ( 2022 ) found that openness and conscientiousness have a positive correlation with student satisfaction in synchronous online learning, while neuroticism has a negative correlation. Hong et al also found that higher levels of neuroticism result in more negative emotions during lockdowns, according to results from 273 participants (Hong, 2021 ).…”

The Role of Personality Risk and Protective Factors in Living with Covid-19: A Longitudinal Study

“…Earlier higher neuroticism associated with future lower life satisfaction and positive feelings, and higher negative feelings. In contrast, positive personality traits, such as agreeableness and conscientious, explained better adjustment to the crisis (Iterbeke & De Witte, 2022).…”

COVID-19 and offshore oil and gas workers: The role of personality

“… Airaksinen et al (2021) linked personality to levels of precautions taken against COVID-19, finding that higher levels of conscientiousness, openness and neuroticism predicted precautionary health behaviours in older adults. Individuals with high levels of neuroticism have a higher likelihood of holding fears about COVID-19 than other Big 5 personalities ( Aschwanden et al, 2021 ) and experienced higher levels of stress throughout the pandemic ( Iterbeke & De Witte, 2021 ; Liu et al, 2020 ). Aschwanden et al (2021) also found that neuroticism was associated with higher levels of uncertainty during the pandemic.…”