Postsecondary Students with LD/ADHD Facing a Sudden Shift to Online Learning during the COVID–19 Pandemic—Emotional Costs and Implications

Abstract

This study examined the emotional costs and well‐being of postsecondary students with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who faced a sudden shift to emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The study was conducted with 237 postsecondary students in Israel from June to July 2020. With regard to online learning, the LD/ADHD subjects reported significantly higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression and lower well‐being than their neurotypical counterparts. However, no significant differences were found in emotional costs and well‐being when the same students had experienced online learning prior to the pandemic. These findings have practical implications for policymakers in academia with regard to the emotional toll of online learning among students with LD/ADHD and their specific needs when facing ERT during the COVID‐19 pandemic as well as the contribution of previous online learning when facing ERT.

Positive Distance Learning Perception, Personal Resources, and Loneliness Among Higher Education Students With ADHD and/or SLD

“…For students with ADHD and SLD, the immediate transition to distance learning at the outbreak of the pandemic was particularly challenging (Laslo-Roth et al, 2022;Sarid & Lipka, 2023), as they tried to cope with various difficulties in meeting their institutions' academic demands (Canu et al, 2021). In particular, changes to the learning environment during this period were a source of social distress and loneliness for students with ADHD, and they reported more difficulties and negative experiences in distance learning compared to their peers without disabilities (Kalman-Halevi et al, 2023;Laslo-Roth et al, 2022). At the same time, a study exploring adjustment to distance learning found that while students reported lower rankings of adjustment to the transition, there were no differences between students with and without ADHD (Shraga-Roitman et al, 2022).…”

“…While the move to distance learning was challenging for students in general (Marinoni et al, 2020), it was more complicated for students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and specific learning disorders (SLD) (Kalman-Halevi et al, 2023), for whom having to adjust to a new learning environment and new technological requirements alongside social distancing and loneliness (Crawford et al, 2020;Engler et al, 2020) posed significant challenges due to generally lower feelings of competence (Serrano et al, 2023), fewer personal resources such as academic self-efficacy (ASE), a lower sense of coherence (SOC) (Ben-Naim et al, 2017;Yu et al, 2018), and higher levels of loneliness (Laslo-Roth et al, 2022;Sharabi et al, 2016) than students without these disabilities. Indeed, studies conducted in the adjustment period to distance learning during the pandemic found that students with ADHD and SLD reported greater learning difficulties and a negative experience with distance learning, alongside greater social and personal difficulties and higher levels of loneliness as an expression of their distress compared to students without these disabilities (Kalman-Halevi et al, 2023;Laslo Roth et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2020).…”

“…Although defined, diagnosed, and treated differently, ADHD and SLD have common characteristics, and previous studies on students in higher education with these disorders have tended to combine the two groups (eg, Kalman-Halevi et al, 2023). In Israel, where the current study took place, it is also common to combine these groups when referring to postsecondary students (Law on the Rights of Students with Learning Disabilities in Postsecondary Institutions, 2008;Monnickendam-Givon, 2022;State Comptroller, 2013).…”