Psychosocial Factor Leading to Anxiety among Adolescents Learning

From Home During COVID-19 Lockdown

Jincy Varghese
19psw119
School of Social Work
Under the supervision of Dr. Boban Joseph

School of Social Work

Marian College, Kuttikkanam (Autonomous)

Peermade, Idukki

September 2020
Content
• Introduction
• Statement of the problem
• Objectives
• Operation definitions
• Review of literature
• Research gap
• Assumptions
• Research hypothesis (H1)
• Methods
• Theoretical framework
  Introduction

• COVID-19 commonly known as the novel corona virus is believed to have

originated from a wet market in Wuhan, china and has spread all over the
world, resulting in a large number of hospitalization and deaths.

• In March 2020, the world health organization has declared the current outbreak
of COVID-19 as public health emergency of international concern and
characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic.

• Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a nationwide lockdown is imposed in India

initially for three weeks from 24th march to 14th April 2020 and then extended
as the situation changing to a big crisis.
Cont.

• Amid COVID-19 – disrupted academic year, cancelled classes and examinations,

students across India are using every technological tool available to pursue
studies.

• Some of the popular tech tools enabling online learning through audio and video
links include zoom, Skype, WhatsApp.

• Students all over the world are experiencing distress, because of the uncertainty of
examination in their schools and colleges and with regards to availability of jobs.
Cont.

• The primary reason being , that all students are unable to afford online platform
usage and smoothly transition to online learning which can have huge negative
impacts on student career path(Agha ,2020).

• Cao et al (2020) opined that anxiety issues among students during COVID-19 are
related to their poor economic conditions, daily life events and hampered
academic activities.
 Statement of the problem

• A descriptive study to assess psychosocial attributes leading to

anxiety among adolescents learning from home during COVID-
19 lockdown.
 Objectives

Specific objectives

Psychosocial attributes leading to anxiety among adolescents learning from home

during COVID-19 lockdown.

General objectives

1. To test the association between anxiety and selected demographic variables such as
age, sex, class of education, religion, duration of stay, reason for homestay, father
education, mother education, father occupation, mother occupation.

2. To assess the level of anxiety among adolescence learning from home during
COVID-19 lockdown.
Research Question

1. What are the factors that leads to anxiety among adolescents learning from
home during covid19?
 Operational Definitions

• Psychosocial attributes - in this study, the psychosocial attributes refers to those

attributes that are encountered by the adolescents during covid 19 lockdown
related to social relationship, physical health and psychological problems.
• Adolescents - refers to the minor children who involved in learning activities
between 8th standard and 12th standard.
• Learning - the process of attaining knowledge by the adolescent through online
during covid 19 lockdown.
• Home - refers to the place where the adolescent engaged in the activities of online
learning.
• Covid 19 lockdown - the present scenario that compelled the adolescent to attend
the virtual class.
 Review of literature

• Elmer, Melham, Stadtfeld (2020) had done a study on students’ social network
and mental health before and at the time of COVID-19 pandemic. They analyzed
change on multiple dimensions of social network (interaction, friendship, social
support and co studying) and mental health indicators (depression, anxiety, stress,
loneliness).
• Student’s levels of stress, anxiety, loneliness and depressive symptoms got worse
compared to before and at the time of crisis. Stressors shifted from fears of
missing out on social life to worries about health, family, friend and their future.
• Universities and researcher discuss the future strategies on how to combine onsite
teaching with online courses, the result indicate the importance of considering
social contacts in student mental health and offered starting points to identify and
support students at higher risk of social isolation and negative psychological
effects during COVID-19 pandemic.
Cont.
• Timalsina (2018) psychosocial problems refer to the difficulties faced by
adolescent in different areas of personal and social functioning. Adolescent are
vulnerable to psychosocial problems because of physical and psychosocial
changes that occur in their body during the developmental stage.

• Therefore, the study was conducted to identify psychosocial problems among

school going adolescents in Nepal. A cross sectional descriptive study was
adopted. Non-probability convenient sampling technique was used for selecting
287 students.

• The findings of this study show that 12.9% of adolescents had psychosocial
problems.
Cont.

• Sandal, Goel, Sharma, Bakshi, Singh & Kumar (2017) conducted a study on
depression, anxiety and stress among school children in Chandigarh. Depressive
disorder often starts at young age. There is a need for early identification of
depression, anxiety and stress and prevention. Ten government schools in
Chandigarh were randomly selected through lottery method. 40 students were
selected from each school reaching sample size 470. Questionnaire was used.

• The prevalence of DAS was 65.53%, 80.85% and 47.02% respectively. Overall co
morbidity between depression and anxiety was 57.65%. The prevalence of DAS
was higher in females. For depression and anxiety, the peak age was 18 years. The
prevalence of DAS was high among school going adolescent in Chandigarh.
  Research gap
• COVID 19 pandemic and the lockdown is new scenario for the humans and never
experienced such a situation before. Humans faces a lot of bio-psycho-socio and
economic problems. The online learning or virtual classrooms are new to students in
Kerala.

• The existing literature dealt with the anxiety and psychosocial problems among school
going children but few studies about the anxiety faced by the children in online
learning during COVID-19 lockdown.

• It is the responsibility of social worker to understand about the anxiety confronted by

children during the pandemic and how the virtual classroom affects their social contact
and relationship with classmates.
 Assumptions

The study assumes that,

• The adolescents attending online class will have some psychosocial attributes
leading to anxiety.

• The anxiety can be measured by using the standardized tool beck anxiety
inventory tool.
 Research hypothesis (H1)

• There is a statistically significant association between anxiety and selected

demographic variable among adolescents at 0.05 level of significance.
 Methods

• Sample size - 50 adolescents

• Sampling technique- purposive sampling
• Target population- adolescents (13-18yrs)
• Research design- descriptive design
Inclusion criteria

1. Those who can speak and understand English.

2. Who are willing to participate in the study.

Exclusion criteria

2. Those who are not willing to participate.

2. Who are not attending online class.

 Theoretical framework

• Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory

One of the most accepted explanations regarding the influence of social

environments on human development. This theory argues that the environment
you grow up in affects every facet of your life. Social factors determine your
way of thinking, the emotions you feel, and your likes and dislikes.