THE STUDENTS’ EMOTIONAL SECURITY AND COPING STRATEGIES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic brought about changes both at the socio-economic level and in our private life. The measures that were taken by governments worldwide have generated a model of action, subsequently customized by each nation. Although the implemented measures aimed at proactively reducing the risk of infection, their consequences were multiple. In this context, the education system was forced to rethink the way of carrying out teaching-learning-assessing activities. Our analysis looks into the feeling of emotional security experienced by students during the online courses. In this context, we conducted a qualitative research, based on the use of the focus group method. The participants in the investigation were students belonging to the 11 departments with a technical profile within the “Gheorghe Asachi” University in Iaşi. We organized three focus groups per year of study – respectively years I, II and III. The aim was to understand the effects of online education on students in the pandemic context from the perspective of “the emotional security feeling”. The objectives focused on identifying the individual difficulties experienced by students and on analyzing the coping strategies they applied. The results highlighted feelings such as fear, anxiety, sadness, insecurity, that worsened with the distance from college and friends. Understanding how the pandemic has affected students is important for teachers in order to identify appropriate ways to come to their support later.