Impact of COVID 19 on Physical,

Emotional, and Social Wellbeing of

Students

Anjana Menon
XI – H
Sharjah Indian School
2021 – 2022
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Acknowledgment

I would like to thank my psychology teacher for giving me the

opportunity to conduct a survey research titled,″ The Impact Of
COVID 19 On The Physical, Emotional And Social Well-Being
Of Students ″
The completion of this project would not have been possible if
not for the endless support of my parents, friends and teachers
who have empowered me to finish the project within the limited
time. I would also like to thank all the respondents who have
taken time out of their day to help me carry out this project.
The project has given me a new light of situations of the present
world. I have learnt a lot about how covid-19 has truly affected
the lives of students my age and I will use my new found
knowledge to better myself.

15 ⁄ 08 ⁄ 2021 Anjana Menon

XI-H

Contents
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Title Page…………………………………………………...............1
Acknowledgment……………………………...…………………….2
Introduction………………………………………………………....4
Methodology………………………………………………………..10
Result………………………………………………………………..13
Discussion and Conclusion………………………………….…..15
References……………………………………………….………..16
Appendices………………………………………………………..16

Introduction

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Psychologists have developed many methods of enquiry to
receive information about a large group, such as surveys,
psychological tests, forums etc. this ay e can learn about the
feeling of the general population without taking an insanely
large amount of time or effort.

Methods of enquiry can be used to study human behavior,

acquire people’s opinion about and event or programme and get
feedback. Remember when you would sometimes be given a
pamphlet to fill regarding your experience at a restaurant? That
is a method of enquiry!

One such thing many people are concerned about is the well-
being of students during the pandemic.

The first outbreak of the novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-

19) was reported at the end of December 2019 in Wuhan, China
and rapidly the virus spread globally; on March 11, 2020, the
World Health Organization declared a pandemic state. The first
confirmed case in the United Arab Emirates was announced on
29 January 2020. It was the first country in the Middle East to
report a confirmed case. The first patient, a 73-year-old Chinese
woman, was released on 9 February after recovering. The first
two deaths were confirmed on March 20. On 22 March, Dubai

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started an 11-day sterilization campaign as an effort to contain
COVID-19. Night curfew was imposed four days later while the
country began disinfection. School closure was first announced
on March 8 for four weeks. Three weeks later, it was announced
that schools will be closed until the end of the academic year.
Distance learning was introduced during the remaining two
weeks, with pupils learning from home. On 30 March, UAE
announced that the 2-week online "distance learning" for
schools and universities would continue until the end of the
academic year in June.

There is little doubt that the pandemic, and the necessary

response to it, is causing considerable concern about its impact
on mental health. From the grief associated with COVID-19
fatalities to the anxiety of testing positive, the pandemic has
clear implications for mental health. Beyond the actual illness
and the fear of contracting the virus, necessary restrictions
placed on the freedom-of-movement, such as social/physical
distancing, social isolation, quarantine and curfews, can also
have negative implications for psychological well-being. The
Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown has impacted students across
the world by keeping them away from their peers, cutting down
physical activity, and making them miss key aspects of their
growing up.

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Children already coping with mental health conditions have
been especially vulnerable to the changes, and now we are
learning about the broad impacts on students as a result of
schools being closed, physically distancing guidelines and
isolation, and other unexpected changes to their lives.

The following are the most common mental health issues seen in
students during Covid-19:
1. Irritability and mood swings.
2. Anxiety and low mood
3. Dependence on video games.
4. Emotional eating (excess eating to cope up with emotions
such as frustrations, stress, boredom, and fear)
5. Increased social media use which aggravates negative
feelings such as comparison, low self-esteem, body image
issues etc.
6. Anger, outbursts, isolating self and video fatigue.
7. Feeling numb and suffering from low motivation.
8. PTSD if exposed to intra-familial violence.
9. Experiments with high-risk behaviors, such as gambling.

Key learning’s through these tough times is adaptability, agility

and innovative thinking that emerges as drivers for survival.
Regular webinars, talks, close group discussions and virtual one-

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on-ones help students to gain a perspective and understand the
situation better and deal better

In the pandemic, we have all learnt that a healthy body is one

which is doing well both mentally as well as physically. And
taking up a sport of any kind can help one add more years to
their life, and ensure those years are peaceful health-wise.
According to Dr Manjeet Singh Aurora, senior general physician
at Fortis Hospital, Mulund, and regular physical activity can
help children and adolescents improve cardio-respiratory fitness,
build strong bones and muscles, control weight, reduce
symptoms of anxiety and depression, and reduce the risk of
developing health conditions.

With most of the fun that comes in school life reduced to just a
screen on a device the pandemic has taken a toll on the physical,
social and emotional well-being of students, especially in their
teenage years.

However, every person experiences things differently. There

may be people who have developed stronger bonds with
families, picked up new hobbies etc. with such varying
experiences; it is up to the psychologists to collect data about

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each and every person to know about the impact of COVID-19
on their lives.

What Is A Survey Research?

Survey research is defined as the process of conducting research
using surveys that researchers send to survey respondents. The
data collected from survey is then statistically analyzed to draw
meaningful research conclusions.

It is the primary step towards obtaining quick information about

mainstream topics and gaining feedback about products,
organizations, experiences etc.

It is a quantitative method for collecting information from a pool

of respondents by asking multiple survey questions. This
research type includes the recruitment of individuals, collection,
and analysis of data. It’s useful for researchers who aim at
communicating new features or trends to their respondents.

The following study examined a sample of 20 students of the

age group 14-17 years and specifically female students. This

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Population as selected to find out whether online classes have
adversely affected the daily lives of school going students
through survey research method.

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Methodology

Aim:
The aim of this survey research is to investigate the impact of
COVID-19 pandemic on physical, emotional and social well-
being of students.

Problem:
To assess the impact of COVID-19 on physical, emotional and
social well-being of students

Sample:
 20 students (or more)
 Age group – 14 -17 years
 Gender – female
 Class – 9-12

Tools:
Questionnaire

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Method:
Survey method

Administration:
The establishment of rapport between the respondent and the
interview, or lack thereof, is a key element in the interviewer
gaining the respondents cooperation to complete an interview. If
a good rapport is not established, the likelihood of the
interviewer completing an interview increases.

Thankfully I was able to establish a good rapport with all of my

respondents and therefore expect the results to be more
authentic.

The purpose of the study is to find out whether the pandemic has
affected the school going students of the age group 14-17 years,
whether the social, physical and emotion well-being of those
students have been directly affected by the pandemic, To
calculate the mean of the observation and come to a conclusion.
It can also be used to understand which fragment of their living
is affected or benefitted the most.

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All the statements in the questionnaire are close-ended questions
which are to be answered after thorough self-analyzing. The
respondents have five columns out of which one can be used to
express their answer.

Scoring:
The total score of the questionnaire can be found out by
combining the total of all the observation divided by the number
of responses. The results can go from a minimum of 15 marks to
the maximum 75 marks. If the final percentage is above 60% we
can conclude that the overall well-being is good.

Statistical Analysis:
 Mean – the total mean of the questionnaire can be
calculated by finding the sum of all the responses and then
dividing it by the total number of responses.
(Here, 995/20=49.75)

 Physical mean – 14.4

Emotional mean – 18.05
Social mean – 17.35

 Total mean – 49.75

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  The type of graph we use for this project is a grouped bar
graph. Like a standard bar chart, the grouped bar chart is
built for showing a distribution of data points or making
comparisons across different categories of data. Where the
grouped bar chart differs is its division of data points across
two different categorical variables, not just one. In this type
of graph bars are plotted systematically. For within-group
comparisons, the primary categorical variable’s levels
determine a location for a cluster of bars to be plotted. A
number of bars are plotted in each group equal to the
number of levels of the secondary categorical variable.
Between-group comparisons are aided by choosing a
consistent color and order for each secondary variable’s
level to be plotted in each group.

Total mean of individual Mean of the three factors

response separately
Sample 1 Physical Mean - 12
44 Social Mean – 16
Emotional Mean - 16
Sample 2 Physical Mean - 18
Social Mean - 19
58 Emotional Mean - 21
Sample 3 Physical Mean - 18
Social Mean - 22
57 Emotional Mean - 17

Result

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25

Physical well-being

Social well-being

Emotional well-being

20

15

10

0
Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3

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Discussion and Conclusion

The well-being of all the selected respondents has been

evidently affected by the pandemic as we had suggested in the
beginning. The total mean of the observations is lower than the
healthy average i.e, 60%.

The study helped us find out that the physical well-being of the
students were affected the most, this proves that the restrictions
on teens to not go outside and refuse them the necessary
exercise have affected their physical health immensely.
The emotional health on the other hand although considerably
low is very high compared to its counterparts. We can interpret
that students have had considerable amount of time to collect
their thoughts on various things thus improving their emotional
health.
Similar to the physical well-being, their social well-being is also
greatly affected. This could be due to the fact that being trapped
inside the house the students couldn’t communicate with their
friends or dear ones face to face and have proper conversations.

From all these observations we can conclude that COVID-19

has directly affected not only the mental health but also the
physical and social perimeters of their lives too. Lack of social
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contact, proper physical exercise and lack of mental awareness
have affected the overall well-being visibly. Not just the disease
but the thought of their lives being closed off and posing a threat
to their live could be causing them anxiety which resulted in the
poor results. The least prominent one is the physical health
which pre-covid many of the students have been quite active
during P.E classes and sports days.

References

 Wikipedia – COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab

Emirates
 India Today – Richa Singh, co-founder and CEO
yourDOST
 The Indian Express – Myles Faith, PhD, childhood obesity
expert
 Globalization and Health
 National Alliance on Mental Health
 Frontiers

Appendices

Mean Equation – Sum of all the results divided by the total

number of responses.
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Sl. Questionnaire
Statements (Sample)
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
No.

1. I have a sense of
direction and purpose 
in my life.

2. For me life has been a

continuous process of 
learning, changing
and growth.

3. I am happy with my
relationship with my 
family.

4. I know that I can trust

my friends and they
know that they can
trust me. 

5. I have proper sleep

and rest. 

6. I am satisfied with my
physical health. 

7. I feel I am loved by
people. 

8. I am quite good at
managing the many 
responsibilities of my
daily life.
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9. I eat healthy food.


10. I have energy to do

my work. 

11. I try to keep fit and

healthy.


12. I feel interested in

other people.


13. I think it is important

to have new 
experiences in life.

14. I feel close to other

people. 

15. I feel confident and

positive about myself. 

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