The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Work Student Stress

Overview: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major effect on the delivery of social work education, disrupting a large cohort of students. Results from a cross-sectional survey (Nf463) of social work students in the U.S. highlights increased academic stress and factors impacting these increases. Implications for social work education are discussed.Proposal text: Background

The Covid-19 pandemic has had an unparalleled impact on daily life across the world. In the realm of higher education, to reduce the spread of the virus, students in traditional in-person programs were no longer able to take classes on campus and many students living on campus were required to vacate their apartments and dorms (Bose, 2020; Conrad et al., 2021). Educational programming was moved to a completely online platform and classes were held synchronously or asynchronously online (Conrad et al., 2021; North, 2020; Paceley et al., 2021). Following previous disasters, academic disruptions have been associated with food insecurity and homelessness, increased mental health and substance use concerns, and academic stress (Beaven et al., 2014; Benevolenza & DeRigne, 2019; Fitzpatrick et al., 2020; Kaniasty, 2020; Peek-Asa et al., 2012; Prost et al., 2016).

The aim of the current cross-sectional survey of U.S. social work undergraduate and graduate students was to describe: 1) students’ experiences of COVID-19 related stress, academic stress, and access to supports; 2) changes in academic stress following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; and 3) program and COVID-19 related factors that contributed to a change in academic stress following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

This study used a cross-sectional design to assess the views of undergraduate and graduate students in the United States experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic between April 24, 2020 - May 26, 2020. This study was reviewed and approved by the authors’ Institutional Review Board. The survey was conducted online using Qualtrics and consisted of 65 items, including demographic variables as well as degree pursued, student status, and program modality. The Coronavirus Impact Scale, the Perception of Academic Stress Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale were used to assess student functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two composite variables were utilized based on survey responses to assess access to academic resources and program support. There were a total of 526 responses with 463 completed surveys, yielding a survey completion rate of 88%. Survey responses were collected from 28 states and the District of Columbia.

Results

Results indicate high levels of student stress in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic with specific stressors noted as changes in routine and lack of access to basic necessities for some students. Paired samples t-test identified an increase in students’ academic stress following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and multivariate regression determined factors contributing to levels of student stress, including program support and access to academic resources.

Conclusion

Given the rapid change for many social work students from in-person to online educational delivery, the findings of this study suggest students’ experiences of academic stress increased significantly from before to after the pandemic, highlighting the importance of attending programmatically to such changes that occur after academic disruption due to natural or health related disasters. We discuss areas of focus for student support, as well as implications for the ways in which social work educators effectively engage and educate students during times of academic disruption.