(PS7-A5) College Student Resiliency During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, college students faced many negative academic impacts. Particularly, underrepresented ethnic minority groups were at higher risk of drop out prior to the pandemic (Chen & DesJardins, 2010), so it would be prudent to assess pandemic-related academic impacts among these vulnerable groups. Prior to the pandemic, student retention was impacted by stress or family and employment obligations (Baker & Robnett, 2012), but college students are now facing additional problems due to online learning and consequences of the pandemic (Means & Neisler, 2020). Despite these barriers, protective factors like resilience, the ability to face challenges and overcome adversity, may aid college students through challenging times during their academic pursuits. We hypothesize that college students experienced additional challenges as a consequence of the pandemic, but did not drop out due to their resiliency. We asked: 1) What are the different domains of academic impacts experienced among college students? 2) Are there any differences in academic impacts experienced between those who dropped out and those who did not drop out over the last academic year (2020-2021)? 3) Among those who dropped out, were there differences in their levels of resilience?

Method: Participants included college students ages 18-48 years old (M=19.78, SD=3.09) from a South Texas, Hispanic-Serving Institution. The sample was predominantly Hispanic/Latinx (n=448, 90.5%) and female (n=371, 74.9%). College students self-reported their retention status and pandemic-related academic impacts with the COVID-19 Academic Impacts Questionnaire (adapted from Son et al., 2020). Academic impacts included concentration difficulties, academic performance issues, internet/technology access problems, and outside interference (e.g., housing insecurity). Participants also self-reported resiliency levels with the Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al., 2008). Hypotheses were tested with separate one-way ANOVA analyses.

Results: Only 10.5% of students dropped out (n=52) over the last academic year. 1) The majority of participants experienced high levels of concentration difficulties (n=384, 60.9%) and academic performance difficulties (n=413, 65.5%). Participants reported fewer problems related to technology access (n=190, 30.2%) and outside interference (n=224, 17.9%). 2) There was no difference in number of academic impacts by retention status, F(1,493)=2.719, p=.10. 3) College students’ resiliency did not differ by retention status, F(1,489) =1.245, p=.265.

Discussion: The effects of the pandemic could disproportionately affect underrepresented college students. Current findings show that college students’ retention is not affected by pandemic-related academic impacts nor by resiliency levels, suggesting that students may be experiencing other negative impacts, like internalizing or externalizing problems, or other protective factors, like wellness behaviors, that may affect their decision to drop out or persist. Current findings could help college counseling centers and student affairs to better address the academic needs of underrepresented groups. Limitations and future directions will be discussed.