THE IMPACTS OF PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN TO THE MENTAL HEALTH OF GRADE 12 GAS STUDENTS IN

CNHS (MAIN CAMPUS)

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

RELATED LITERATURE

Lockdown-related school closures have been one of the most significant public health measures across
the world, ensuring students' safety worldwide. For children and young people in the UK and other
countries around the world, such as Canada and the Philippines, this has been the first extended closure
of schools in recent history. As such, its impact on their mental health and wellbeing is essential to
consider, particularly given the already contentious nature of the effectiveness of school closures on
disease containment and the fact that school is often the first place that children and young people can
and do seek support for their mental health and wellbeing.

As of 7 May 2020, the recorded total number of COVID-19 cases reported in the Philippines by the
Department of Health (DOH) was 10,343, with 685 deaths and 1,680 recovered. With these figures, the
Philippines ranks third, after Singapore and Indonesia, in Southeast Asia's number of COVID-19 cases.
After the DOH published the first COVID-19 case in the country, obtained through local transmission,
Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed Proclamation No. 922 on 8 March 2020, indicating the
country was under a state of a public health emergency. This was to restrict the further extent of the
disease and decrease its impacts on societies. On 16 March, the President declared a state of tragedy
throughout the Philippines for six months and forced an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ)
throughout the island of Luzon, including Metro Manila. While initially set to last till 12 April 2020, the
ECQ was later extended to 15 May 2020.

An extended period of school closures will undoubtedly impact curriculum delivery over the coming
years, this includes online implications of learning, and as such, school is an emerging source of distress
and worry for children and young people. In particular, young adults are experiencing different concerns
about their education being interrupted because of the pandemic and their future career opportunities.
Adolescent carers have also stated concerns about their education, with half of those inclined in one
study telling that their education has suffered due to increased caring responsibilities and associated
stresses. The return to school of children and young people has concerns having worries and distress
over losing the enjoyable and vital aspects of school and the impact of social distancing on learning and
other aspects of what is essential to learn from school, including friendships. In particular, one study
found that primary-aged children worry about being away from home and transitioning between
schools. In contrast, secondary-aged children worry about increased academic pressures that include
much more complex activities and self-learning in particular, as well as catching COVID-19. Moreover, a
case study of a group of quarantined students during the SARS outbreak found that the students
experienced stigma upon returning to their studies due to their contact with the infection, a factor
which is essential to consider should we experience more localized lockdown measures during future
outbreaks of COVID-19.
Globally, the pre-lockdown learning setup or tutoring is only a process in children and adolescents,
predominantly involving one-to-one interaction with their mentors and peer groups to emancipate
learning. Unfortunately, because of local lockdowns from other parts of the country's municipality, the
nationwide closures of schools and colleges have negatively affected over 91% of the world's student
population, especially those who need special attention and proper guidance in teach (Lee, 2020). The
stay-at-home setup for learning serves as confinement of children and adolescents. It is associated with
uncertainty and anxiety that affects their social life status and is attributable to disruption in the
opportunities for socialization, education, and physical activities (Jiao et al., 2020). The absence of a
structured school setting for a long duration results in disruption in routine, boredom, lack of initiative,
lack of interest, and lack of innovative ideas for engaging in various academic and extracurricular
activities, which enjoyment must be enjoyed through a process of camaraderie. Some children have
expressed lower levels of effect for not being able to play outdoors, not meeting friends, and not
engaging in in-person school activities (Lee, 2020; Liu et al., 2020; Zhai and Du, 2020). These children
have become more clingy, attention-seeking, and dependent on their parents. They have become more
playful too and set aside learning due to the long-term shift in their routine, such as online learning and
scheduled activities. It is then presumed that children might resist and contradict going to school after
the lockdown gets over and may face difficulty establishing rapport and elusive system change from the
routine they have with their mentors after the schools resume and reopen again. Consequently, the
restriction of movement imposed on them can have a long-term adverse effect on their overall
psychological well-being (Lee, 2020).

A study found that the result of lockdowns to older adolescents and youth are anxious about cancelling
examinations, exchange programs, and academic events essential for them to have an exceptional grade
(Lee, 2020). Current studies related to COVID-19 demonstrate and clearly show that school shutdowns
in isolation prevent about 2-4% additional deaths, which is relatively more minor than other social
distancing measures. Moreover, they suggest to the policymakers that schools should follow other less
disrupting social distancing policies if social distancing is approved for a long duration (Lee, 2020; Sahu,
2020; Viner et al., 2020a). Though, it is controversial whether complete closure of schools and colleges is
warranted for a prolonged period in current circumstances.

It has been reported that panic among teenagers because of their academic grades in times of distress
indicates an instinctual survival behavior that elevates their need for certain things(Arafat et al., 2020).
There has been a rise and a continuous report in hoarding behavior among teenagers (Oosterhoff et al.,
2020a). It is also found that social distancing is viewed primarily as a social responsibility, and it is
followed more sincerely if motivated by prosocial reasons to prevent others from getting sick
(Oosterhoff et al., 2020a). Further, due to prolonged confinement at home, children's increased use of
the internet and social media predisposes them to use the internet compulsively, access objectionable
content, and increase their vulnerability to getting bullied or abused (Cooper, 2020; UNICEF, 2020b).
Worst of all, during lockdown when schools, when legal and preventative services do not function fully,
children are infrequently in a situation to report violence, abuse, and harm if they have abusive homes.

As the pandemic has spread worldwide and continuously under the devising period, authorities and
societies have imposed restrictive administrative measures and lockdown procedures to prevent the
spread of the viral infection and to keep all people living inside the society to be safe (Alfano and
Ercolano, 2020; Lau et al., 2020; Moris and Schizas, 2020). the world has implemented several restrictive
procedures to control virus spread since March 2020, including lockdown measures to ensure
community safety.

These measures infiltrate people's health safety but can dramatically affect their mental health,
especially elders and students. The precautionary lockdown measure adds to the effect of depression,
stress, and anxiety endured by people who lost their job and other opportunities due to the pandemic,
which results in higher pressure on families, which escalate to different effects of the lockdown which
they have to generate good way to garner financial support in different ways. The social isolation and
lockdown measures procedures have several negative mental health consequences due to family
separation, sudden inclination with anxiety, loss of personal freedom, and the stress related to
socioeconomic and financial consequences of the pandemic (Yao et al., 2020). During a global pandemic,
people in unique lockdown settings require medications, food, and the capacity to sustain a normal
lifestyle. Therefore these concerns should be addressed to have any alternatives at all-cause (Matias et
al., 2020). Besides, the sleep and weight changes that have been a routine for teens during the
lockdown period should be addressed; routine affects their physical self and mental health (Huang and
Zhao, 2020; Sher, 2020).

A study conducted among different parts of the world, which records the data of 4872 participants in 31
provinces and regions in China, discovered that 22.6% have anxiety indications, and 48.3% have
depressive indications (Gao et al., 2020). Also, another study carried among 3480 participants from
Spain found that 21.6% displayed anxiety manifestations, and 18.7% had depressive symptoms
(González-Sanguino et al., 2020). A similar study conducted in Italy found that 18.7% have anxiety
symptoms (Mazza et al., 2020). Moreover, one handled in Turkey among 343 participants in the young
age group exhibited high anxiety indications in 45.1% (Özdin and Bayrak Özdin, 2020) manifested a
similar preference because of the lockdown. However, no recent study among the general population
pinpointed that most of the recently published studies were in other regions and continental areas of
the world other than the Philippines itself but other parts of the world. (Xiong et al., 2020). Therefore,
there is a need and accountable measure to appraise the outgrowths of COVID-19 lockdown on the
human population, especially with students who need proper guidance and development on their
behavioural and mental health statuses.

By January 15, 2021, more significant than a billion COVID-19 cases and 1,645 COVID-19-related deaths
were reported in all parts of the daily world and recorded to be detrimental, especially to youths. The
UN government initiated lockdown measures and restrictive policies in March 2020 still prevails in other
countries with regions in alert level 2 situations; therefore, after two months of lockdown, there was an
efficacious matter to be crucial need to address the awareness on the mental health status of the
human population and assess people's socioeconomic status during the lockdown. Herein, we aim to
overview the psychological status and behavioral consequences of the lockdown during COVID-19.
However, we know few details about how the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing restrictions have
impacted mental health. Survey studies in the general population point to widespread concerns around
anxiety and isolation in particular (The Academy of Medical Sciences, 2020). Thorough investigations
into the effects of lockdown and social isolation on mental health are a priority to inform strategies that
support wellbeing (Holmes et al., 2020), particularly given that another lockdown was imposed in
November 2020 and additional lockdowns may need to be imposed as the situation evolves. Preliminary
evidence suggests that younger adults seem to have been particularly affected by the COVID-19
pandemic and ensuing restrictions. This finding is especially concerning given that (even pre-pandemic),
the prevalence of mental health issues has been rising amongst young adults, with escalating trends in
self-reported anxiety symptoms reported and females particularly at risk (Calling et al., 2017). Studies
conducted in Spain during the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak found that adolescents or younger
adults experienced higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms than older age groups (Gonzalez-
Sanguino et al., 2020; Ozamiz-Etxebarria et al., 2020). Similar results were found by studies conducted in
China (Ahmed et al., 2020; Huang and Zhao, 2020), which shows that 16.4% of young adults experience
a doubt within their capabilities, leading to depression symptoms. An extensive UK nationwide survey
found that mental health) deteriorated significantly between 2018 and 19 and April 2020 (one month
into UK lockdown), and this effect was most potent amongst 18–24-year-olds (Pierce et al., 2020). These
findings highlight the importance of further work focussed on this age range better to characterize
effects on young people's mental health and inform possible intervention strategies.

Changes in learners' socioeconomic stability, including school and academic-related before and after
lockdown, is also an important area of study since information is lacking regarding the effects of the
pandemic and lockdown on learners' academic behaviour. The use of alcohol among teens is one of the
preferences because they suffer from depression, stress, and anxiety brought by lockdown and
academic performance rates, the World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned against the potential risks
of increased alcohol consumption during social isolation, which might increase the future incidence of
alcohol use disorders from the determinant factors will increase further. In the months following the
lockdown imposed by the UK government, an increase in the purchase of alcoholic beverages was
reported (Office of National Statistic, 2020), although how this translated into actual consumption is not
clear. A cross-sectional survey study in the German and Philippine general population found that 20% of
respondents reported drinking more minor, but 35% reported drinking more or much more alcohol
since the start of the lockdown: those with higher levels of perceived stress were more likely to fall into
the latter group (Anne et al., 2020). Enhancement (i.e., increasing positive affect) and coping (i.e.,
reducing negative affect and anxiety) motives (Cox and Klinger, 1988) for alcohol use could explain
increases. Enhancement and coping motives are strong drivers of heavy alcohol use in young adults
(Kuntsche et al., 2005).

On the other hand, because lockdown conditions significantly curtailed social opportunities for alcohol
use, a decline in alcohol use might also be predicted. This could be especially the case for student
populations, amongst whom patterns of alcohol use strongly correlate with socializing activities (Del
Boca et al., 2004). Given the long-term health risks associated with heavy drinking, it is crucial to
ascertain how the COVID-19 situation has affected alcohol consumption and whether changes reflect
alcohol being used as a coping strategy amongst those whose mental health has been most impacted.

In sum, the effects of lockdown on young people's mental health, sleep and alcohol use are key variables
worthy of detailed scrutiny. Evidence suggests that young adults have been more affected than older
age groups, emphasizing the importance of characterizing these effects. To address this, the current
study collected data on depression and anxiety symptoms, wellbeing, loneliness, sleep quality, diurnal
preference, and alcohol use (October 2020) in most parts of the Philippines. All the data was compared
to a second data point collected soon after the COVID-19 situation had emerged and lockdown
conditions imposed (April/May 2020) to investigate a within-subject change in these variables. In
contrast to most of the studies outlined above, this study benefits from using a longitudinal design, thus
quantifying the change in these variables under lockdown. Correlations between changes in these
variables were also assessed to determine relationships between them. Based on the evidence above,
we hypothesized an increase in depression and anxiety symptoms, reduced wellbeing, greater
loneliness, and reduced sleep quality under lockdown; we also predicted associations between
depression and sleep quality. The current study also sought to clarify whether the pandemic and
lockdown have led to increased or decreased alcohol use amongst students. To gather further
information and inform the interpretation of effects of mental health among youths, which shows the
second data collection point also questioned participants about how they felt they had been affected by,
and adapted to, the COVID-19 situation and their extent of worry surrounding contracting the virus
(both for themselves and family members).

Mental distress has been increased during the pandemic is occurring against a backdrop of high rates of
mental illness because of an extensive limitation because of isolation to prevent the spread of COVID-19
and substance use that existed prior to the current crisis has been violated among the minority of
adolescents especially in high school. Prior to the pandemic, one in ten young adults reported symptoms
of anxiety and depressive disorder that have been encountered from the world. Nearly one in five young
adults (47 million) reported having any mental illness, and so happens that it is ignored among the
process of unknown knowledge about mental illness and becomes doubled as the pandemic lockdown
arises. It is also recorded that the suicidal rate among youths has increased because of emotional
distress and depression. In 2018, over 48,000 people died by suicide, and on average, across 2017 and
2018, nearly eleven million young adults reported having serious thoughts of suicide in the past years in
different parts of the world. Additionally, deaths due to drug overdose because of determinants like
stress, depression, and anxiety and the feeling of lonesome brought by the pandemic and lockdowns
were four times higher in 2018 than in 1999, driven by the crisis from another cause such as bullying.

There are various ways that the pandemic has likely affected young adults' mental health, particularly
with widespread social isolation resulting from necessary safety measures. A broad body of research
explores that links social isolation and loneliness to both poor mental and physical health. The overall
experience of loneliness became a public health concern even before the pandemic, given its association
with reduced lifespan and greater risk of both mental and physical illnesses. A KFF Health Tracking Poll
conducted in late March 2020, shortly after many stay-at-home orders were issued, found that
sheltering-in-place were more likely to report adverse mental health effects resulting from worry or
stress related to coronavirus compared to those not sheltering-in-place.

Some prior epidemics have induced general stress and led to new mental health and substance use
issues. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, different populations are at increased risk of experiencing
poor mental health and may face challenges accessing needed care. The ECQ instructed all residents to
stay at home, and the closure of all non-essential business establishments, schools and universities,
public transportation facilities, malls and shopping centres, churches and other faith-based institutions.
Checkpoints were set up in various parts of Metro Manila and throughout Luzon as means to control
movement of people throughout the island. In essence, the ECQ meant the suspension of the freedom
of movement. With people confined to their homes for almost two months, the most vulnerable
residents, particularly the daily wage earners covered by the “no work, no pay” policy, and those
employed in the informal economy, have borne the brunt of these measures. The loss of their income
has forced these employees to rely on whatever assistance and social amelioration programmes that the
national government, local government units and the private sector extend to them.

The ECQ instructed all residents to stay at home, and the closure of all non-essential business
establishments, schools and universities, public transportation facilities, malls and shopping centres,
churches and other faith-based institutions. Checkpoints were set up in various parts of Metro Manila
and throughout Luzon as means to control movement of people throughout the island. In essence, the
ECQ meant the suspension of the freedom of movement. With people confined to their homes for
almost two months, the most vulnerable residents,

particularly the daily wage earners covered by the “no work, no pay” policy, and those employed in the
informal economy, have borne the brunt of these measures. The loss of their income has forced these
employees to rely on whatever assistance and social amelioration programmes that the national
government, local government units and the private sector extend to them.

Higher education institutions (HEIs), both public and private, have also had to adjust to the new
situation where face-to-face interaction and mass gatherings are prohibited. Committed to their
mandate, the leading universities and colleges in the Philippines, particularly those affiliated with the
ASEAN University Network – such as the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University and
De la Salle University, found innovative ways to fulfil their three-pronged tasks of education, research
and service. Everyone, from the operations and support service units, which aided the effectiveness of
learning, to administrators and teachers, adjusted to work-from-home arrangements and the stability of
mental health among students has an eminent instigations on the prevalent manner in implementation
of mental health awareness.

From the confines of their homes, teachers and administrators were put to the task of revising and
adapting course syllabi and requirements as they shifted to alternative or remote teaching modalities,
both synchronous and asynchronous. Where students and teachers had access to electronic devices and
reliable Internet connections, learning managements systems such as Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, and
applications like Google Hangouts, Zoom and Skype, were used. But where students had limited access
to computers or unreliable access to the Internet, teachers and students used smartphones to exchange
messages, notes and materials, through text messaging, e-mail, Facebook Messenger, and Twitter. In
some instances, these arrangements became unsustainable and some universities had to suspend
remote or online classes because the uneven socioeconomic status of students affected their access to
these modalities of learning. Also, concerns regarding the mental health of both students and teachers
affected by the uncertainty, became another reason to suspend online classes.

Furthermore, HEIs were involved in enhancing the capabilities and competencies of members of the
academe, professional groups, and the general public by sharing their knowledge, skills and expertise on
relevant topics. Training activities, mentoring sessions, and webinars were organised by various colleges
and universities using Zoom and Skype. Topics covered in these activities include online teaching,
biosafety, COVID-19 and emerging infectious diseases, and psychosocial first aid and support for
students and faculty. Students, teachers, staff and alumni initiated various projects and activities to
solicit, and extend support and resources to ensure the safety of healthcare workers, food producers
and distributors, grocery and supermarket workers, and law enforcement agents manning checkpoints.
Cognisant of their education, research and service functions, HEIs in the Philippines certainly had their
hands full in responding to the challenges of the time. The bayanihan spirit or collective community
mobilisation very typical of Filipino culture in times of crisis and emergency was strongly demonstrated
by the different sectors in HEIs during the pandemic.

The pandemic has clearly demonstrated the social, economic, political and environmental realities and
phenomena from varying perspectives, and the unsustainable conditions that many of us have been
living with; it has also produced new problems and challenges and changed the way we live our lives.
HEIs also need to review and evaluate their research agenda and priorities to respond to these
realisations and changes. The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a new world full of challenges,
dilemmas, as well as opportunities. It is up to us to adapt and transform the challenges and dilemmas to
opportunities for growth and development for our nation and the global community.

RELATED STUDIES

A mental health crisis has emerged and affected almost all age groups during the COVID-19 pandemic,
recording data among teens and adults. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
concludes that as of June 2020, which one-third of adults were suffering from anxiety or depression in
the US is about 14% and 28% among teenagers. The valuations are almost two times more eminent for
young adults, a population that has already seen a critical increase in the pervasiveness of mental health
disorders over the past decade. Individuals aged 18 to 24 were expected to be at risk for depression or
anxiety and a quarter reported contemplating suicides in the previous month. These estimates
represent a significant increase in depression rates compared to all adults in 2019 and about 25% of
college students prior to the pandemic. The rise in depression has occurred at the same time that stay-
at-home orders, campus closures, and social distancing measures have caused significant severance to
everyday life, changing the way people live, work, study, and communicate.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant worldwide impact on the lives of more than 1.6 billion
students at its peak (UNESCO 2021) and their schooling. Like many other countries, the United States
also pursued a policy to lockdown schools which started in mid-March 2020, to mitigate the pandemic.
The lockdown caused the schools to adopt and pursue remote learning using video conferencing
methods rapidly. The teachers, students, and their families have experienced several different
challenges, including increased stress and anxiety that have led to degradation of mental health.
Stringent social distancing measures have further compounded the issues due to the lack of vaccines
and high mortality rates (over two million deaths worldwide).

The issue of degrading mental health due to pandemics has been reported in the past (Hawryluck et al.,
2004; McAlonan et al., 2007; Lau et al., 2010; Xiang et al., 2014). The circumstances surrounding the
COVID-19 pandemic have increased the stress and anxiety in people (APA 2020; Tandon 2020; Wang et
al., 2020), including high school students. Liang et al. (2020) report a much higher fraction of youth with
psychological issues during the COVID-19 pandemic when compared to prior pandemics. The American
Psychological Association (APA) reports [American Psychological Association (APA), 2020] that nearly
81% of Gen Z teens (ages 13–17) experience more intense stress due to COVID-19, associated with
schooling. However, APA's report does not delve into the specific details of the stressors arising from the
pandemic-related changes in schooling. The issues related to schooling and their impacts have been
reported in many countries (Dolean and Lervag, 2021).

China was the primary country to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, several studies
analyzing the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of students have been reported. Hou et al.
(2020) consider that mental health problems and suicidality among senior high school students in China
are caused by depression, self-blaming, and failures in their academic performances during the COVID-
19 pandemic. Their study included 859 high school students (61.4% male and 79.4% below 16 years of
age). However, their study did not focus on specific stressors, though they surmise that educational
pressure, pronged school closure, and social stigma of COVID infection might be stressors. Nevertheless,
they report that higher exercise frequency, control in our study, correlated with fewer symptoms of
depression and anxiety. Another cross-sectional study of 532 Chinese high school students by Zhang et
al. (2020) used three types of questionnaires from prior studies and showed that nearly 20% of students'
mental health was impacted. Their analysis showed that resilience and positive coping were protective
factors against depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Another cross-sectional study (Liang et al.,
2020) of 584 youth (age 14–35) in China showed that 40.4% were prone to psychological problems, and
14.4% had PTSD symptoms. In the context of COVID-19, their study suggested that mental health was
related to educational level, employment, and using negative coping styles.

Last January 2021, COVID-19 has infected 94 million people and has caused 2 million deaths in 191
countries and territories worldwide, and changed the course of time, especially in the Philippines (John
Hopkins University, 2021). This pandemic has created a massive disruption of the educational systems,
affecting over 1.5 billion students. It must force the government to eliminate national reviews and the
schools to temporarily close, cease face-to-face instruction, and rigidly observe physical distancing.
These developments have sparked the digital transformation of higher education and challenged its
capacity to respond immediately and effectively. Schools selected associated technologies, provided
learning and staff resources, set systems and infrastructure, established new teaching protocols, and
adjusted curricula. However, the development was steady for some schools but strict for others,
particularly those from emerging countries with insufficient infrastructure (Pham & Nguyen, 2020;
Simbulan, 2020).

Necessarily, schools and other learning places were required to migrate to complete online learning as
the world continues the battle to dominate the vicious and delicate spread of the virus. Online learning
refers to a learning setting that uses the Internet and other technological devices and devices for
synchronous and asynchronous instructional delivery and management of academic programs, which
encourages students to study amid lockdown(Usher & Barak, 2020; Huang, 2019). Synchronous online
learning involves real-time interactions between the teacher and the students, while asynchronous
online learning occurs without a strict schedule for different students (Singh & Thurman, 2019). Within
the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning has taken the status of interim remote teaching
that responds to an exigency. However, the migration to a new learning space has faced several
significant concerns relating to policy, pedagogy, logistics, socioeconomic factors, technology, and
psychosocial factors (Donitsa-Schmidt & Ramot, 2020; Khalil et al., 2020; Varea & González-Calvo, 2020).
Concerning policies, government education agencies and schools scrambled to create fool-proof policies
on governance structure, teacher management, and student management. Teachers, who were used to
conventional teaching delivery, are also obliged to embrace technology despite their lack of
technological literacy. To address this problem, online learning webinars and peer support systems were
launched. On the part of the students, dropout rates increased due to economic, psychological, and
academic reasons. Academically, although students can learn anything online, learning may be less than
optimal, especially in courses requiring face-to-face contact and direct interactions (Franchi, 2020).

Recently, there has been existence and explosion of studies relating to the new normal in education.
Later on, this relationship affects the intellectual abilities of almost 30% of students in the country.
While many focused on these national policies, professional development, and curriculum, others
zeroed in on students' strategies and specific learning experiences, which allocated the terms during the
pandemic. from these are Copeland et al. (2021) and Fawaz et al. (2021), who examined the impact of
COVID-19 on students' awareness through their mental health and their coping strategies and
mechanisms, exceptionally high schools. Copeland et al. (2021) described that the pandemic skeptically
affected students' behavioral and emotional functioning. Somewhat they feel alone and unwell, which
pertains mainly to attention and externalizing problems (i.e., mood and wellness behavior) caused by
isolation, economic/health effects, lack of financial support and other uncertainties. In the study of
Fawaz et al.'s (2021), students proposed their overwhelming task load, technical difficulties, concerns on
learning and evaluation methods, and confinement which serves as a factor that affects their mental
health to be detrimental. Students actively dealt with the situation to reduce the feeling of weariness by
seeking help and coping through this problem from their teachers and relatives and engaging in
recreational activities to cope with these problems. These active-oriented coping mechanisms of
students were aligned with the study provided by Carter et al.'s (2020), who explored students' self-
regulation strategies to be an eminent providence in their mental attitudes.

In another study by Tang et al. (2020), he examined the efficacy of different online teaching modes
among engineering students. Using a questionnaire from their derivative approach, the results revealed
that students were dissatisfied with online learning in general, particularly in communication and
question-and-answer modes. Nonetheless, the combined online teaching model with flipped classrooms
improved students' attention, academic performance, and course evaluation but will be hard for the
majority whom lacks from the needed resources. An identical study was undertaken by Hew et al.
(2020), who converted conventional flipped classrooms into fully online flipped classes that will help
them understand the lessons very well through a cloud-based video conferencing app that will help
learners cope learning through the lockdown proceedings and help them to be aware more on their
mental abilities. Their study findings suggested that these two types of learning environments were
equally effective and will help students elevate through the learning process. They also offered
alternative ways on how to effectively adopt videoconferencing-assisted online flipped classrooms much
more convenient. Unlike the two studies that have taken place, Suryaman et al. (2020) looked into how
learning occurred at home during the pandemic. the cause of stress among average learners are seen
from this point of study. Their findings showed that students faced many obstacles to proceed in a home
learning environment, such as lack of focus on academic lessons, lack of mastery of technology, high
Internet cost, and limited interaction/socialization between and among students. Kapasia et al. (2020)
investigated how lockdown and the pandemic impacts students' academic learning performance in a
related study. Their findings made a clear way which revealed that the lockdown made significant
disruptions in students' learning experience. The students also reported some of the challenges that
they faced during their online classes which include stress, anxiety, depression, poor Internet service,
lack of focus, lack of resources and unfavorable home learning environment, that includes household
chores which were aggravated when students are marginalized and from remote areas. Contrary to
Kapadia et al.'s (2020) findings, Gonzales et al. (2020) found that confinement of students during the
pandemic had significant positive effects on their performance. They attributed these results to
students' continuous use of learning strategies which, in turn, improved their learning efficiency.

Finally, some focused on students' overall online learning experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Such a study was that of Singh et al. (2020), who observed students' background during the COVID-19
pandemic through learning assessment, which impacted their mental health more promptly using a
quantitative descriptive approach that indicated that students appreciated the use of online learning
during the pandemic. However, half believed that the traditional classroom setting was more effective
than the online learning platform. Methodologically, the researchers concede that the quantitative
characteristics of their study restrict a broader interpretation of the verdicts. Aside from the above
study, Khalil et al. (2020) qualitatively investigated the effectiveness of synchronized online learning in a
school in Saudi Arabia that manifests the learners' mental ability. The results indicated that students
generally perceive synchronous online learning positively, particularly time management and efficacy.
However, they also reported technical (internet connectivity and poor or lack of utility in device of
tools), methodological (content performance), and behavioral (individual personality) difficulties. Their
findings also highlighted the breakdown of the online learning environment to address courses requiring
hands-on practice despite efforts to adopt virtual laboratories. In a parallel study, Adarkwah (2021) used
a narrative inquiry approach to examine students' online learning experience during the pandemic. The
findings indicated that Ghanaian students considered online learning ineffective due to several
challenges during lockdown that they encountered, which were detrimental to their social and mental
health. Among these were lack of social interaction and inclined much more to be isolated among
students prevalence in working academically, poor communication, lack of self-confidence, lack of ICT
resources, limited financial stability, and feeble learning outcomes. More recently, Day et al. (2021)
investigated the significant impact of COVID-19 on students' learning backgrounds. Data from six
institutions across three countries revealed some positive experiences and pre-existing inequities. The
reported challenges are lack of appropriate devices, poor learning space at home, stress among
students, and lack of fieldwork and access to laboratories.

CITATIONS AND REFERENCES

• COVID-19 resource centre – My Assignment Tutor.

https://myassignmenttutor.com/questions/covid-19-resource-centre/

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