Subjective Assessments of the Pandemic Situation and Academic Adaptation of University Students

Abstract

Students’ academic adaptation during the pandemic is the key problem for the educational system. Even though certain success has been achieved in the organization of education with distance learning technologies and additional learning tools, there are still plenty of other difficulties that affect students’ adaptation. The purpose of the study is to conduct a comparative analysis of academic adaptation’s structure during and before the pandemic and to study the role of subjective assessments of the pandemic situation in university students’ academic adaptation. Nine hundred nineteen university students took part in the study. М = 19.54; SD = 2.47 (17.5% male). The following methods were used within the framework of the study: the method for assessing academic adaptation components developed by the authors, the direct scaling method via a questionnaire used to analyze subjective assessments of the pandemic situation, social frustration [1] assessment method and a differential 1uestionnaire used to assess the experience of loneliness [2]. The study established certain differences in the level of manifestation for emotional, motivational, and psychophysiological components of students' academic adaptation before and during the pandemic. The hypotheses were tested regarding the role of subjective assessment of the pandemic situation, social frustration, and experience of loneliness under academic adaptation-related changes. Structural modeling allowed testing of the hypothesis concerning the direction of relations between variables. The pandemic situation is an important factor in reducing psycho-emotional and motivational components of academic adaptation. Interpersonal relations among students are the most important predictors of their academic adaptation. Assessment of the pandemic situation (29% variation), social frustration (49%), and loneliness (22%) are significant predictors of academic adaptation. The presence of diseases and attitudes regarding health risks, and satisfaction with relations with other educational process participants largely determines students' academic adaptation during the pandemic. At the same time, the direct effect of academic adaptation and the indirect one through the positive perception of distance learning is a more positive perception of Covid-19consequences.