Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Education and Teaching
Year: 2025
DOI:
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Where to from Here? Personal and Social Resources of Adolescents in a Pre-Post-Pandemic Comparison
Udo Käser, Janne Fengler, Jost Schieren, Stefanie Greubel
ABSTRACT:
The measures taken worldwide as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic (e. g., school closures and curfews) had significant impact on the development of children and adolescents. They caused psychosocial stress for pupils (Panda et al., 2021) and their performance was impaired. These effects still linger today (Betthäuser et al., 2022, Anger, 2024). However, such consequences have hardly been analysed from a perspective of resource theory so far. Therefore, the present study examines the extent to which personal and social resources of adolescents have been reduced in the course of the pandemic. Data were collected from 2219 pupils (7th to 12th grade, 12 to 18 years old, M = 14.7 and SD = 1.7 years) at twenty schools in Germany. The survey took place during the final phase of the pandemic (2022/2023). In addition to biographical data, personal (empathy, self-efficacy, self-esteem, sense of coherence, optimism, self-control) and social resources (emotional and social support from parents, authoritative parenting style, integration into peer group, school integration) were measured using the FRKJ (2016). There were no significant differences (d > .2) between our sample and the norm sample for empathy, self-efficacy and sense of coherence. For the remaining seven variables there are significant losses with small to medium effect sizes. These differences are analysed in terms of biographical characteristics. Educational implications are discussed, including what compensatory strategies can build resilience in pupils now and how policymakers can prepare schools to deal better with similar challenges in the future.
keywords: educational consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, pupil resilience, resource theory