Educational, Emotional, and Social Impact of the Emergency State of COVID-19 on Romanian University Students

Cristina Gavriluță, Costel Marian Dalban and Beatrice Gabriela Ioan
Additional contact information
Cristina Gavriluță: Department of Sociology and Social Work Department, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, 700506 Iasi, Romania
Costel Marian Dalban: Department of Sociology and Social Work Department, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, 700506 Iasi, Romania
Beatrice Gabriela Ioan: Department of Legal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 700115 Iasi, Romania

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-20

Abstract: Background and Objectives : The COVID-19 pandemic has had a global impact at the social, economic, cultural, and political levels. Education is one of the areas that experienced a sudden change during the COVID-19 pandemic that affected both students and teachers worldwide. Thus, the aim of our research was to analyze the educational, emotional, and social impact of the period of the emergency state (16 March 2020–15 May 2020) imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic on Romanian university students. Materials and Methods : We conducted a questionnaire-based survey among Romanian university students at the national level. Results : Our study showed that students accepted online education only as a form of compromise in relation to the epidemiological situation. However, they were affected by the diminished contact with the university and their colleagues and the lack of a regular routine. Emotionally, the participants experienced feelings of loneliness, panic, fear, aggressiveness, and intolerance due to the lack of cultural activities, the struggle with the usual routine, and the restriction of communication and movement. Socially, the relationships with friends and university colleagues were affected; many students returned home to their parents, who supported them during the lockdown. As a general finding, our study describes a social category that felt the full effects of isolation during the emergency state but still managed to cope with the situation by mobilizing a number of specific resources: family, intellectual and cultural concerns, and faith. Conclusions : The emergency state imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has been a special experience in the lives of Romanian students. Its dramatism was tempered well by an effective support mechanism provided by social ties, intellectual formation, and a certain religiosity. This has produced good resilience among students, but also in the communities they belong to.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; students; educational dimension; emotional dimension; social dimension (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/3990/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/3990/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:3990-:d:780881

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().