COVID-19 and the class of 2020: a national study of the mental health and wellbeing of Leaving Certificate students in Ireland

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt education in unprecedented ways. The first school closures in Ireland took place in March 2020, affecting many students, but especially those who were preparing for their end-of-school Leaving Certificate (LC) examinations. The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which COVID-19 had impacted the health and wellbeing of the ‘class of 2020’. Some comparisons were also made with a 2015 health and wellbeing survey undertaken in Ireland. A total of 959 LC students completed an online survey. The findings demonstrated substantial negative impacts of COVID-19 on overall health and wellbeing. The comparison with the ‘pre-COVID’ (2015) sample of LC students also showed that the current cohort was faring statistically significantly worse across several domains. This is the only study to investigate the health and wellbeing of this cohort in the context of COVID-19. The findings provide important insights into impacts on student mental health and wellbeing; they also raise questions about how those who went on to Third Level, are faring, in light of continuing disruption to their studies and in the context of the already large numbers of Third Level students presenting with mental health problems in Ireland (and elsewhere).

Keywords:

• Leaving Certificate
• class of 2020
• mental health
• wellbeing
• third-level

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) and the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU) who kindly agreed to distribute this survey for purposes of the research. We are also grateful to all of the schools and teachers who agreed to support the research and all of the young people who took part in this study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Penny Quinn

Penny Quinn is an Irish Research Council funded PhD scholar in the Centre for Mental Health and Community Research (www.cmhcr.eu), Maynooth University Department of Psychology.

Sinead McGilloway

Professor Sinéad McGilloway is Founder Director of the Centre for Mental Health and Community Research, Department of Psychology and Social Sciences Institute at Maynooth University (www.cmhcr.eu). She is a Chartered Psychologist and Chartered Scientist with the British Psychological Society (BPS) and an Associate Fellow of the BPS. Professor McGilloway has extensive experience in undertaking engaged policy- and practice-relevant research in the field of health and community care, with a particular focus on child and adult mental health and wellbeing in the community, and service evaluation. She is widely published, has won significant funding to date, and is currently leading/supervising a large number of interdisciplinary engaged research programmes and projects, including several which focus on wellbeing in schools.

Jolanta Burke

Dr. Jolanta Burke is a Chartered Psychologist, specialising in positive psychology applied in education, Assistant Professor and Researcher, Maynooth University Department of Education. She is the author of “The Ultimate Guide to Implementing Wellbeing Programmes for School” and “Undertaking Capstone Projects in Education: A Practical Guide for Students”, which will be published later this year by Routledge. For more information, please go to: www.jolantaburke.com