Spotlight on Research: Is COVID-19 pandemic affecting students’ stress level? | Science - Mirage News

An expert in developmental processes in teenagers, Associate Professor Hiromichi Kato of Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Education has been observing children within the age range of puberty, roughly from 10 to 17 years old. 

Associate Professor Hiromichi Kato (left) and Yuejiang Hou (right)

The psychological characteristic of children within this age range is the susceptibility to problems, from depression to delinquency.

According to Prof. Kato, the general Japanese society respects conformity and community. Japanese teenagers are inclined to seek this communal sense by establishing good relationships with their peers, rather with their family members. This social need, more often than not, overpowers academic achievement within these teenagers’ priority list.With such a perspective, it is only natural most people assume that the school closure, most notably for middle schoolers, would be hard for these students...

While the finding shows a relatively safe stress level of students, Hou mentioned that there are certain new subjects that come to light, one of which was absenteeism or the reluctance to go to school. Absenteeism often occurs in Japanese schoolers in teenage years, most frequently accompanied by certain difficulties at school. Since the school has been reopened, 40% of schoolteachers reported an increasing number of school-skippers.

The fear of coronavirus infection might have played a role in this increase. Prof. Kato and Hou also compared the data with another middle school located in Hokkaido. The result shows that there is a higher number of students in Hokkaido expressing worry to go back to school, considering the possibility of getting coronavirus infection. This is where Prof. Kato and Hou focused their concern on types of teachers’ responses on measures against COVID-19.

Read more...

Source: Mirage News