CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter provides the reader with a general overview of the topic about The Impact of

COVID- 19 Pandemic to the emotions of Senior High Students in AMCC. The first part of this

chapter gives an evaluative report of the information found in the literature related to the selected

area of study. The review describes, summarizes, evaluates, and clarifies this literature. The last

part is a brief overview of the studies related to the subject at hand.

RELATED LITERATURE

“The impact of the pandemic on people’s mental health is already extremely concerning.”

(WHO, 2020). The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted the emotion of

people worldwide. This brought many unprecedented challenges and had severe implications on

the economy and health of many countries around the globe. Since the onset of the pandemic,

many countries, including the Philippines, have implemented various public health measures.

However, particularly among young people, students mostly, these measures may have had

profound emotional consequences.

According to Taylor et al. (2019), there tend to be different emotions in all pandemics,

such as fear, anxiety, stress, confusion, and anger. Likewise, those who spend time in isolation

tend to show symptoms related to post-traumatic stress, for example, fear and anxiety (Brooks et

al., 2020). Home quarantine or home isolation is an unpleasant experience for most students as it

limits their freedom, causing apprehension of their academic, feeling bored, separating from

others, fearing from diseases, depression and anxiety (Lee et al., 2020a; Wu et al., 2009).
Students specific symptoms; recently imposed quarantine; prolonged home-stay; and reports of

poor health status, unnecessary worry, concerns for family members, and discrimination were

significantly associated with the higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression (Tee et al.,

2020). As aforementioned, students often face physical, psychological, social and academic

demands that increase their risk and vulnerability to psychological distress such as depression,

anxiety and stress. Few studies have addressed depression, anxiety and stress among students

although psychological disturbances reported highly during the time of COVID-19 outbreak (Liu

et al., 2020; Qiu et al., 2020; Sahu, 2020; Wu et al., 2009; Zheng, 2020).

Students with an anxiety may, have trouble concentrating in class or completing

classwork, feel self-conscious and avoid certain situations, have physical symptoms, such as a

racing heart, fast breathing, tense muscles, sweaty palms, a queasy stomach, and trembling hands

or legs, take medication to help reduce anxiety, miss class time due to problems coping at school,

or needing to talk with a school counselor or therapist (Shirin Hasan, MD et al., 2019).

Depression, according to various dictionaries (Longman, 1978; 1995; Webster, 1995),

can be categorized into three groups. Firstly, it can mean a feeling of sadness and no hope for the

future. A second meaning is the act of not being engaged in much business activities, and being

less active than usual. Thirdly, it can also mean a person's emotional state, including being

unhappy and anxious, which prevents a person from living a normal life. On the basis of

emotional features, depression is described as feelings of sadness, loneliness, guilt/shame,

anhedonia, and past failure (Westermeyer, 2003). Furthermore, signs and symptoms associated

with depression in adolescents are persistent sadness, loss of interest in activities once enjoyed,
feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt, being bored, increased irritability. anger. or

hostility (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000).

Stress can be defined as any type of change that causes physical, emotional, or

psychological strain. Stress is your body's response to anything that requires attention or action.

Stress can be short-term or long-term. Both can lead to a variety of symptoms, but chronic stress

can take a serious toll on the body over time and have long-lasting health effects. (Elizabeth

Scott, PhD et al., 2020).

As stated by (Fernández-Berrocal, Extremera, & Ramos et al., 2004; Salovey, Mayer,

Goldman, Turvey, & Palfai et al., 1995), females, place greater attention on their emotions than

males do and are more skillful at dealing with and understanding their emotions, while males are

more competent at regulating impulses and withstanding pressure. Because men showed greater

down-regulation of amygdala activity and less prefrontal activity during regulation, one might

conclude that men are able to regulate their negative emotion with greater efficiency than

women. Despite their comparable decrements in negative experience, it is possible that

reappraisal may be less effortful for men than women, requiring less engagement of the

prefrontal structures usually implicated in the strategic implementation of cognitive and

emotional control. Several areas of prefrontal cortex have been implicated in the use of cognition

to regulate emotion (Ochsner & Gross et al., 2005).