CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The outbreak of (novel) Coronavirus was identified in China in December 2019,

causing the world to adjust to the new normal set up. COVID-19, the first coronavirus to

be labeled a global pandemic (World Health Organization, 2020), has wreaked havoc

across a wide range of human activities. Many colleges throughout the world undertook a

sudden transition from face-to-face to online and remote learning in order to minimize

the spread of coronavirus (Ali, 2020; Aristovnik et al., 2020; Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, 2020; Coyne et al., 2020). In this setting, university students who were

enrolled during the COVID-19 outbreak may be at risk of unfavorable academic

outcomes, such as grades, as well as important academic beliefs, such as self-efficacy.

According to research, the COVID-19 outbreak has been followed by unfavorable

psychological impacts such as heightened emotions of tension and worry and depressive

symptoms (Brooks et al., 2020; Salari et al., 2020; Taylor et al., 2020). Students assessed

during COVID-19 lockdowns around the world indicated increasing tension, anxiety, and

concerns, as well as boredom, annoyance, and a lack of enthusiasm (Aristovnik et al.,

2020; Cao et al., 2020; Patricia Aguilera-Hermida, 2020). COVID-19, like other public

health epidemics, is seen as a chronic stressor, potentially resulting in significant changes

to thoughts, feelings and behaviors (Liu et al., 2020) across multiple domains of

functioning, including the academic context. Given that the introduction of COVID-19

and the shift to virtual learning are both novel and unanticipated events in Philippines,
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and all around the world, we can expect considerable psychological issues for students.

The worry of becoming infected or losing loved ones to the epidemic, along with the

pressure of having to quickly adjust to new teaching and evaluation techniques, would

have put a lot of strain on the children. Aside from testing, planning, and implementing

new teaching and learning environments, educational institutions must now analyze

students’ psychological well-being in order to take necessary actions to assist them cope

with unprecedented changes.

Mental health of individuals is a major health concern, expected to be disturbed

during pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020).

According to previous research reports, during similar viral outbreaks, a significant

increase in the risk of mental health problems among individuals happen, including

anxiety, depression and traumatic stress (Matsuishi, et al., 2012; Bukhari et al., 2016;

Mak et al., 2009; Elias,H., Ping W.S., & Abdullah, 2011). During the recent COVID-19

pandemic, increased levels of stress, anger, anxiety and depression have been reported

among individuals in different parts of the world (Brooks et al., 2020; Mazza et al., 2020;

Hyland et al., 2020).

In an effort to halt the spread of the virus, most governments took several safety

measures varying from temporary postpone of activities and events in educational

institutions to a complete closure of schools and universities (Billy, 2020; Sahu, 2020).

Distance learning became the route of education implemented in most countries, and

unsurprisingly, enclosing new concerns and challenges for students (Sahu, 2020; Gewin,

2020). Thus, as a consequence to this major change from the norm, mental health of

college students was expected to be affected (Sahu, 2020).

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Anxiety and depression have been reported to be caused by public emergencies

including pandemics, affecting the mental health of people, including college students

(Cao et al, 2020; Liang et al., 2020). It has been acknowledged that COVID-19 pandemic

significantly affected the educational process, career progression, health and safety of

medical students (Ferrel & Ryan, 2020). More concerns have been brought to light

regarding medical students’ education as a consequence to the impact of COVID-19. No

previous study has looked into the precise effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the

mental health of medical students in Jordan, nor abroad, and its effect on their learning

process.

Because of the pandemic, schools in the province of Capiz and in other parts of

the country have shifted from face-to-face learning to other learning modalities like

online, modular or blended. These measures were implemented to prevent the students

from getting infected. The pandemic has brought so much psychological impact to

students such as fear of acquiring the disease and also fear of not being able to perform

well in their academic tasks.

During this pandemic, Capiz State University-Mambusao Satellite College

attained a record-high freshmen enrollment. These students have been studying for

almost two years while the country is in global health crisis. These students have spent

their final year in senior high school learning on their own with their modules or learning

in a virtual classroom with their teachers seen just on the screen of their computers or

mobile phones.
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This situation has prompted the researchers to find out the level of anxiety on

COVID-19 of the freshmen at CAPSU Mambusao Satellite College and their academic

performance in different learning modalities during their senior high school.

Statement of the Problem

The study was conducted to determine the level of Coronavirus Disease 2019

(COVID-19) anxiety and its relationship to academic performance of senior high school

graduates enrolled at CAPSU Mambusao Satellite College during the Academic Year

2021-2022. Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is the socio-demographic profile of the respondents in terms of sex, parents’

educational attainment, household income, health status, place of residence, type

of high school graduated from, and learning modality in senior high school?

2. What is the level of COVID-19 anxiety of the respondents as an entire group and

when grouped according to sex, parents’ educational attainment, household

income, health status, place of residence, type of high school graduated from, and

learning modalities in senior high school?

3. What is the academic performance of the respondents as an entire group and when

grouped according to learning modality?

4. Are there significant differences in the level of COVID-19 anxiety of the

respondents when grouped according to sex, parents’ educational attainment,

household income, health status, place of residence, type of high school graduated

from, and learning modality in senior high school?

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5. Is there a significant difference in the academic performance of the respondents

when grouped according to learning modality?

6. Is there a significant relationship between level of COVID-19 anxiety and

academic performance?

Hypotheses of the Study

This study was conducted to test the following hypotheses:

7. There are no significant differences in the level of COVID-19 anxiety of the

respondents when grouped according to sex, parents’ educational attainment,

household income, health status, place of residence, type of high school graduated

from, and learning modality.

8. There is no significance difference in the academic performance of the

respondents when grouped according to learning modality.

9. There is no significant relationship between level of Coronavirus Disease 2019

(COVID-19) anxiety and academic performance.

Theoretical Framework

Krashen (1985a, 1985b) maintained that anxiety inhibits the learner’s ability to

process incoming language and short-circuits the process of acquisition. An interaction is

often found among anxiety, task difficulty, and ability, which interferes at the input

processing retrieval, and output level. If anxiety impairs cognitive function, students who

are anxious may learn less and also may be able to demonstrate what they have learned.

Therefore, they may experience even more failure, which in turn escalates their anxiety.
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Vitasaria, Wahab, Othmana, Herawan, and Sinnadurai (2010) asserts that anxiety

is one of the major predictors of academic performance. Students with anxiety disorder

display a passive attitude in their studies such as lack of interest in learning, poor

performance in exams, and on assignments.

Conceptual Framework

During the COVID-19 pandemic, students experience a certain level of anxiety

which could influence their interest in their studies and consequently their academic

performance. The fear that they might get infected or their loved ones by COVID-19

coupled with the shift of learning from face-to-face to distance learning like modular and

online could have an impact to their academic performance. Students who are anxious are

restrained from processing information in their lessons. They experience difficulty in

handling intellectual activities such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering. Thus, they

will learn less and may not be able comply their academic requirements.

In this study, it is assumed that COVID-19 anxiety (independent variable) is

related to academic performance (dependent variable) of the respondents. This

relationship is shown in Figure 1. Students with higher level of anxiety tend to have

lower academic achievement.

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Independent Variable Dependent Variable

COVID-19 Anxiety Academic Performance

Figure 1. Schematic diagram showing the relationship between the dependent and
independent variables.

Significance of the Study

COVID-19 has greatly affected the psychological well-being of many people

particularly the students. The fear of getting infected has caused so much anxiety

affecting their mental state. An investigation on the relationship between COVID-19

anxiety and academic performance will generate findings that may be significant to

students, parents, teachers, and future researchers.

Students

With the results of this study, students will be provided information about

COVID-19 anxiety and how this relates to academic performance. It is worth knowing

how COVID-19 anxiety can impact their academic performance since learning has

shifted from face-to-face to distance learning. It is important that students are informed of

the barriers to learning so they can look for ways of overcoming them.

Parents

Parents also need to be aware of the COVID-19 anxiety of their children. Parent’s

involvement is important in the academic life of their children. If their children have high
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level of anxiety, parents should have participation on how to reduce their children’s

anxiety. They can initiate activities that can lessen the anxiety of their children while

studying at home.

Teachers

It is important for teachers to know the level of anxiety of their students relating

to COVID-19 and how this may affect their academic performance. In distance learning,

teachers could not easily observe how students manage their academic works. Results of

this study may help teachers in deciding on the amount of activities and assignments their

students will work on. It will also remind them of their roles as teachers in helping

students manage their anxiety. Teachers should be sensitive to student’ fears and

insecurities and help them to confront those fears.

Future Researchers

This research will serve as a guide to future researchers as their reference for

further studies. The result of the study may arouse interest of other researchers to conduct

same or related studies which will either confirm or contradict the result of this study.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study focused on the level of COVID-19 anxiety in relation to the academic

performance of the freshman students at Capiz State University-Mambusao Satellite

College during the Academic Year 2021-2022.

Since COVID-19 at the present is at low risk, students were asked to determine

their level of anxiety when they were in Grade 12 during the previous academic year
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when COVID-19 was still alarming. Their general weighted average in Grade 12 served

as indicator of their academic performance. Only freshman students who have submitted

their report card to the Registrar’s Office were selected as respondents of the study.

The data were gathered using a questionnaire composed of two parts. Part I

gathered personal characteristics such as sex, parents’ educational attainment, household

income, health status, place of residence, type of high school graduated from, and

learning modality in senior high school. Part II was the COVID-19 anxiety scale adopted

from Alipour et al. (2020). The general weighted average in Grade 12 was obtained from

the Registrar’s Office and Office of the Guidance and Counseling.

In the interpretation of data, frequency count, percentage, mean, standard

deviation, ANOVA, t-test and Pearson’s r were used.

Definition of Terms

To facilitate better understanding of the study, the following terms were defined

conceptually and operationally as follows:

Academic performance represents performance outcomes that indicate the extent

to which a person has accomplished specific goals that were the focus of activities in

instructional environments, specifically in school, college, and university (Steinmayr et

al., 2020). In this study, it refers to the general weighted of the respondents during their

Grade 12. It was arbitrarily categorized into 95-100 (Outstanding), 90-94 (Very

satisfactory), 85-89 (Satisfactory), 80-84 (Fairly Satisfactory), and 75-79 (Poor).

Anxiety is an emotion characterized by apprehension and somatic symptoms of

tension in which an individual anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune

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(APA Dictionary of Psychology). In this study, it refers to the scores obtained by the

respondents in the COVID-19 scale. It was categorized into 4.21-5.00 (very high), 3.41-

4.20 (high), 2.61-3.40 (average), 1.81-2.60 (low), and 1.00-1.80 (very low).

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the

SARS-CoV-2 virus (World Health Organization). The same concept is used in this study.

Distance learning refers to a modality where learning takes place between the

teacher and the learners who are geographically remote from each other during

instruction (Lexology, 2020). The same concept is used in this study.

Educational attainment is the highest level of schooling completed (APA

Dictionary of Psychology). In this study, it refers to the highest level of schooling of the

respondents’ parents. It was categorized into elementary level, elementary graduate, high

school level, high school graduate, college level, college graduate and post-graduate.

Health status is a level of health of an individual person, a group, or a population

as assessed by that individual or by objective measures (Segen's Medical Dictionary,

2011). The same concept is used in this study. It was categorized into with comorbidity

and without comorbidity.

Household income is generally defined as the combined gross income of all

members of a household above a specified age. For some usages of the term, individuals

do not have to be related in any way to be considered members of the same household

(Scott, 2021). In this study, it refers to the combined income of all members of the

household. It was categorized into Php10,000 and below, Php10,001-20,000 and

Php20,001 and above.

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Learning modality refers to a learning delivery modality where learning takes

place between the teacher and the learners who are geographically remote from each

other during instruction (TeacherPH, 2021). In this study, it refers to how learning

experiences were delivered to the respondents during their senior high school. It was

categorized into modular distance learning, online distance learning and blended.

a. Modular distance learning refers to learning in the form of individualized

instruction that allows learners to use self-learning modules (SLMs) in print or

digital format/electronic copy, whichever is applicable in the context of the

learner and other learning resources like Learner’s Materials, textbooks,

activity sheets, study guides, and other study materials (Llego, 2021).

b. Online distance learning features the teacher as facilitator, engaging

learners’ active participation through the use of various technologies accessed

through the internet while they are geographically remote from each other

during instruction (Llego, 2021).

c. Blended learning, in this study, refers to the combination of modular distance

learning and online distance learning.

Place of residence refers to the place, especially the house, in which a person

lives or resides (Dictionary.com). In this study, it refers to the location of the house where

the respondents were staying during the surge of the COVID-19. It was categorized into

town or city proper and barangay.

Sex refers to either of the two major forms of individuals that occur in many

species and that are distinguished respectively as female or male especially on the basis
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of their reproductive organ and structures (Merriam-Webster). The same concept is used

in this study. It was categorized into male and female.

Type of school, in this study, refers to whether the school is funded by the

government or not. It was categorized into public (national high school or SUC) and

private.