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COVID-19-induced academic stress and its impact on life satisfaction and optimism: a panel study of Swedish university students between 2020 and 2022
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8335-9235
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9023-7316
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4203-5394
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2500-1686
2024 (English)In: European Journal of Higher Education, ISSN 2156-8235, E-ISSN 2156-8243, Vol. 14, no 3, p. 429-450Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In this article, we analyse the level of and development in students’ academic stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We devote particular attention to students that first entered university in 2020, ‘the COVID cohort’, who had fewer opportunities to integrate in ways that theoretically should mitigate the impact of pandemic-induced disruption to their studies. Using four waves of data, collected 2020–2022, we find evidence of both pandemic and cohort effects among Swedish university students (N = 3138). During the pandemic’s first year academic stress due to COVID-19 increased regardless of pre-pandemic university experience. The stress, in turn, negatively impacted students’ life satisfaction, a factor theoretically linked to key student outcomes like persistence and academic performance but had limited effect on students’ long-term optimism. The COVID cohort expressed higher levels of academic stress and experienced a greater drop in life satisfaction compared to the most senior students (3 years or more), but largely overlapped with students with some university experience (1–2 years). These group differences persisted in spring 2022. Finally, we found that the higher levels of pandemic-induced academic stress in the COVID cohort were mitigated by experiences that foster academic and social integration, specifically by teacher support and social cohesion.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2024. Vol. 14, no 3, p. 429-450
Keywords [en]
academic stress, life satisfaction, student well-being, optimism, COVID-19
National Category
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-207724DOI: 10.1080/21568235.2023.2209707ISI: 001285992900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85159275023OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-207724DiVA, id: diva2:1753841
Part of project
Examining the liberalizing effect of higher education: A longitudinal cohort study of a university student population, Swedish Research Council
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2019-02996Available from: 2023-04-29 Created: 2023-04-29 Last updated: 2024-08-21Bibliographically approved

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Bohman, AndreaEger, Maureen A.Hjerm, MikaelMitchell, Jeffrey

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CiteExportLink to record
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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
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