Student resilience to COVID-19-related school disruptions: The value of historic school engagement

Abstract

Does historic school engagement buffer the threats of disrupted schooling – such as those associated with the widespread COVID-19-related school closures – to school engagement equally for female and male high school students? This article responds to that pressing question. To do so, it reports a study that was conducted in 2018 and 2020 with the same sample of South African students ( n = 172; 66.30% female; average age in 2020: 18.13). A moderated moderation model of the 2018 and 2020 data showed that historic levels of school engagement buffered the negative effects of disrupted schooling on subsequent school engagement ( R² = .43, β = −5.09, p < .05). This protective effect was significant for girl students at moderate and high levels of historic school engagement, but not at lower levels of historic school engagement. Disrupted schooling did not significantly affect school engagement for male students at any level of historic school engagement. In addition, student perceptions of teacher kindness were associated with higher school engagement and having experienced an adverse event at school with lower school engagement. The results point to the importance of facilitating school engagement and enabling school environments – also when schooling is disrupted.

Resilience to COVID-19 challenges: Lessons for school psychologists serving school-attending youth with experiences of marginalization

“…Likewise, McCalman et al (2022) reported wellbeing benefits for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students following teacher capacity to better support student wellbeing. Similarly, Theron et al (2022) reported that higher pre-pandemic school engagement buffered the negative effects of pandemic-related school disruptions for a sample of girl students in a disadvantaged South African community. Not surprisingly, higher school engagement was associated with student perceptions of a caring school community (i.e., with teacher kindness and school being a safe space).…”

“…Failure to do so might privilege students whose gendered socialization might encourage them to be more responsive to supportive interaction (Roorda et al, 2011). Such gendered patterns were prominent in the paper by Theron et al (2022): historic levels of higher school engagement protected girls (but not boys) against the negative impacts that school disruptions hold for subsequent school engagement. Gendered resilience patterns were also reported in Pillay's (2022) study, which focused on the resilience of 4,165 students (majority Black African) in Grades 4 to 12 in South Africa.…”

“…This is particularly important in contexts, like rural Australia, where SPs are rare. Following Luthar et al (2020), the other special issue papers (Chatlos et al, 2022; Goodwin et al, 2022; Mohangi, 2022; Pillay, 2022; Theron et al, 2022) cautioned against taking school staff and parent/caregiver capacity to champion resilience in challenged times (like pandemics) for granted.…”

“…The papers in this special issue provide some pointers to how the adults associated with a school community could form a caring whole and support the resilience of students challenged by various forms of marginalization. While the geographical contexts reported in the papers on this resilience-themed issue vary (e.g., students from rural/urban USA [Chatlos et al, 2022; Goodwin et al, 2022]; remote Australia [McCalman et al, 2022], and South Africa [Mohangi, 2022; Pillay, 2022; Theron et al, 2022]), as do the marginalization experiences (e.g., disability or special education needs ([Chatlos et al, 2022; Goodwin et al, 2022], rurality/remote location [Chatlos et al, 2022; McCalman et al, 2022], visible minority [Goodwin et al, 2022], and/or structural disadvantage [Mohangi, 2022; Pillay, 2022; Theron et al, 2022]), the capacity of caregivers and school staff to support student resilience during the pandemic was invariant. For instance, Goodwin et al (2022) reported mental health benefits for American elementary school students and their caregivers when elementary school teachers and caregivers shared a sense of supportive connectedness.…”

“…An important additional SP task in the post-COVID era is to support teachers to champion the resilience of students (especially marginalized students) that were impacted by the pandemic (e.g., children who lost a parent to COVID or who are challenged by long-COVID). In this regard—and following from the Theron et al (2022) paper on this themed issue—there is likely to be merit in SPs focus on developing teachers’ capacity to better support students (especially girl students) to be school engaged. Similarly, and as reported in the McCalman et al (2022) paper on this themed issue, there is resilience-enabling value in enhancing teacher capability to provide contextually relevant mental health support.…”