CHAPTER 2

Review of Related Literature

This chapter presented a review of related literature and studies

which established a frame of reference in the conduct of the
study. It includes research literature from books, various
studies, and other related manuscript including the online
references or computer base in network.
Covid-19 and New Normal.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which began in
China in December 2019, has spread to many other countries in the
world, and it is considered a public health emergency of
international concern ( Pagnini, F. et al., 2020) Coronaviruses
are a large family of viruses that may cause illness in humans as
well as in animals. This disease is caused by a novel coronavirus
(SARS-CoV-2, previously known as 2019-nCoV) and has received
global attention from growing infections and on how to eradicate
the disease and flatten the curve of infections (Guo et al.,
2020).
The COVID-19 pandemic is still existent today, and there are
no specific vaccines or medicines to eradicate this disease. We
need to live to the new normal; if not contained, we need to live
with the disease as viruses are constantly evolving (Denworth,
2020). However, scientists are still on their way in studying and
developing vaccines and presently in clinical trials (Gautret et
al., 2020).
The education sector is one of the highly affected by the
COVID19 pandemic. Every country is presently implementing plans
and procedures on how to contain the virus, and the infections
are still continually rising. In the educational context, to
sustain and provide quality education despite lockdown and
community quarantine, the new normal should be taken into
consideration in the planning and implementation of the “new
normal educational policy” (Tria, J. Z., 2020).
The attitudes and behaviours we had to follow during COVID-
19 pandemic have shaped our life, in a few months, like no decade
before in recent history. With the strive of the countries and
the communities for effective containment of this contagious
disease, the world is experiencing a huge disruption to all the
economic activities and social life. The radical changes that
people had to do due to management of risks; i.e. the need to
react, to abide by the new regulations and to be prepared for the
worst; have shacked-up the basis of many assumed concepts of
life. Even now, we changed how we perceive doing business and
deliver services in the future( Buheji,2020 and OECD, 2019).
Oxford dictionary (2020) defines the new normal as an event, or
status, or era that previously was unfamiliar or atypical
situation that has become standard, or usual, or expected.
Since this pandemic might have a series of outbreaks, it is
expected to have different phases where we need to react, then
realize and reflect on the essence of the sudden major life
challenges. As the world would strive to resume its activity
towards the better productivity and progressive growth, it would
need to go through fuzziness and would need to reshape itself to
fit the pre-requisites of the next new normal (Levenson,2020 and
Helyer and Lee, 2014).

Students
Student life is the happiest period in the life of a person.
It is a life, free from all anxieties of the tough world. The
mind of the student is full of noble ideas and his eyes are full
of dreams. It is the most crucial period in the life of a person.
The most important things in students’ life are discipline and
punctuality without discipline students are like a bird without
wings. Punctuality is the exact time to again knowledge (Rao,
2019).
More than 1.5 billion students and young learners globally
are affected by school and university closures due to the
coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. In the Philippines,
the Covid-19 crisis has affected about 27 million learners, 1
million teachers and non-teaching staff, as well as the families
of learners (Grant Thornton, 2020).
The outbreak of Coronavirus negatively affected educational
activities worldwide. The coronavirus pandemic affected
educational systems worldwide, leading to the widespread closures
of schools (Wikipedia, 2020). It created serious disruptions in
academic activities, as well as in career plans. As part of the
global efforts to combat COVID-19, many countries across the
world closed down schools in an attempt to contain the
coronavirus pandemic. According to the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
monitoring, over 100 countries implemented nationwide closures,
impacting over half of the world’s student population (UNESCO,
2020).
Over the past few months, there have been huge disruptions
to life and those who have been affected greatly are students.
Not being able to see friends, transitioning to studying online
and losing out on real-life interaction with teachers are among
some of the factors they have had to deal with. One student’s
experience of the pandemic will be vastly different from another.
For some, it could have been an enjoyable time, for others
traumatic (Hanifan, 2020).

Effects on Students’ Behaviour

Behaviour is the response of an individual or group to a
stimulus. The stimulus may be an action, person or something in
the environment. The response typically is an action. Classroom
behaviour thus is stimulus-driven responses that occur
specifically within the classroom or how students are acting in
the classroom in response to what is going on or present around
them (Business dictionary.com).
The pandemic heavily hit higher education students’ habits
regarding the social life (closed dorms and therefore moving back
home, no meetings with friends, university colleagues, relatives,
no parties, no traveling, staying trapped overseas etc.) as well
as their financial situation (losing a student’s job, worries
about own financial situation, about future education and career)
and emotional health (fears, frustrations, anxiety, anger,
boredom etc.). Besides many challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic
brought also some positive changes in habits and mindsets, such
as paying more attention to personal hygiene, taking care of
their own (quitting smoking, eating organic food from local
farms) and relatives’ health, especially of those in risk groups,
taking more time for doing sports, etc. (Aristovnik, A. et al.,
2020).
Notwithstanding the fact that school closures will result in
significant loss of learning for children, educators and
psychologists alike point out that this will not be the only
impact felt by students. In the context of school closures, and
with the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis more generally, it is
unfortunately quite likely that many students will experience
significant trauma, additional stress and anxiety. The effects of
stress in the literature stem from physical, psychological to
behavioral problems. (Akhlaq et al., 2010; Johnson, Wasserman,
Yildirim, & Yonai, 2013; Ramos, 2011). Many children and
adolescents will potentially find themselves confined in
unsuitable and/or unsafe housing, especially if parents are also
confined and still have to work. Family ties have been placed
under greater strain, with mandatory confinement and the need to
live together with few alternatives (Urgence Rehabilitation
Development, 2020)
The COVID-19 pandemic also has upended daily routines and
associated ‘cues’ that serve to maintain regular sleep schedules.
Working from home, altered mealtimes, increased sedentary
behavior, social distancing, and increased “screen time” are only
some of the changes that hold potential to disrupt circadian
rhythms that govern sleep-wake patterns (Zvolensky, M,J. et al.,
2020).
Fear is an adaptive defense mechanism that is fundamental
for survival and involves several psychological and biological
processes of preparation for a response to potentially
threatening events. COVID-19 represents a true threat, with many
unknowns. If you are infected, there is a chance you could die,
regardless of your current age, sex, or health status. As such,
fear is a natural and adaptive response to this pandemic.
Research has demonstrated that trait levels of anxiety have
increased in the US in recent decades, though the cause of such
increases is unknown (Twenge, 2000). The COVID-19 pandemic is
likely to contribute to these basic levels of trait anxiety, thus
creating a “new normal” level of anxiety (Zvolensky, M,J. et al.,
2020).
Effects on Students’ Educational Life
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational systems worldwide,
leading to the near-total closures of schools, universities and
colleges. For almost two pandemic months, most countries around
the world have temporarily closed educational institutions to
contain the spread of the COVID-19 and reduced infections. This
closure has affected more than 1,2 billion learners worldwide
with more than 28 million learners in the Philippines (UNSECO,
2020).
As of 1 April 2020, the number of learners that had to stay
at home due to the closure of educational institutions at all
levels reached the peak of 1.598 billion learners from 194
countries. The pandemic heavily hit higher education students’
habits regarding the academic work and life (e.g. switch to
online lectures/tutorials, closed libraries, changed
communication channels for teachers’ and administrative support,
new assessment methods, different workloads and performance
levels etc.) (Aristovnik, A. et al., 2020).
Students have been impacted at the maximum point of school
closures, one of the issues is the loss of knowledge acquisition.
Forced out of school, many students have seen their learning lose
quality, or even disappear completely during the period of
confinement, a break in learning that continues for more than 60%
of learners (according to UNESCO estimates of 5 July 2020). This
break will already have had a huge impact on young people, in
terms of potential loss of knowledge education. Distance
education 123 students do not enjoy privileges such as access to
library resources, computer laboratories, students support
services interactions with academic counselors which make them
disadvantage compared to regular and –campus students.
According to UNESCO (2020), some of the harmful effects of
school closures for coronavirus are as follows: Interrupted
learning: School provides essential learning and when they are
closed, students are deprived of opportunities for growth and
development, (b) Nutrition: Many youngsters rely on free or
discounted meals provided at schools for food and healthy
nutrition. This is compromised as a result of school closures for
coronavirus, (c) Unequal Access to digital learning portals: lack
of access to technology or good internet connectivity for
continued learning during school closures, (d) Increased pressure
on schools and school system that remain open; Localized school
closures place burdens on schools as parents tend redirect their
children to open schools, (e) Social Isolation: Considering the
fact that educational institutions are hubs for social activity
and human interactions, school closures can deprive youth and
children of some social communications and socializations that
are essential to learning, development and creativity.
In an online learning environment, study reveals that
learners engaged in a level of community that best suited their
needs. Striving to achieve a spirit of community seemed to yield
beneficial learning outcomes. While skillful planning and
extensive organization help create a positive learning
environment, the design must also be conducive to rapid re-design
as the course progresses in order to respond to learning needs as
they emerge (Macdonald & Thompson, 2005). Technology tends to
have a meaningful impact on student preparation for class,
attentiveness, quality of notes taken, student participation in
class, student learning, desire to take additional classes from
the instructor or in the subject matter, and the overall
evaluation of the course and the instructor (Lavin, Dakota &
Davies, n.d.). However, the shift to online mode has raised many
queries on the quality of education (Sahu, 2020)

The impact on academic integrity has been observed around

the world. A rise in contract cheating and academic file-sharing,
and exam cheating were identified as particularly problematic.
Due to the fact that learning is mostly remote since the start of
COVID-19 in March cheating has been easier than ever. There is no
remorse from students since attitudes have shifted away from
prioritizing education over other things. The lack of student
to teacher interaction has also led students to feel less
passionate about the integrity of their work. This leaves
students to turn in half-completed assignments, get the answers
from their friends in class, or turn in nothing at all simply
because education has become less important due to COVID-19.
(Allan & Seaman, 2008)

Students’ Coping Mechanisms

 Coping mechanisms are the strategies people often use in the
face of stress and/or trauma to help manage painful or difficult
emotions. Coping mechanisms can help people adjust to stressful
events while helping them maintain their emotional well-being
(Coping Mechanisms, n.d.).
Significant life events, whether positive or negative, can
cause psychological stress… To adjust to this stress, people may
utilize some combination of behaviour, thought, and emotion,
depending on the situation. People may use coping mechanisms for
stress management or to cope with anger, loneliness, anxiety, or
depression (Coping Mechanisms, n.d.). However, empirical evidence
of the impact of stress on the individual has shown that
depending on the stress coping strategies of the individual,
stress could be very harmful to a person’s physical and mental
health (Akhlaq et al., 2010; Al-Sowygh, 2013; Hung & Care, 2011;
Smith et al., 2014).
Moreover,
coping emotions
strategies. have been linked
In particular, adults to
whothe use of
report specific
more anger
and fear prefer to use active-oriented coping strategies such as
asking questions, while those who are sad are more likely to use
non-active coping strategies such as avoiding or accepting
problems. In turn, the successful use of coping strategies will
help individuals manage stressful events and reduce negative
emotions. However, the direction of the relationship between
emotional responses and coping strategies is not clear, and the
relationship is not always constant. Some studies during the SARS
epidemic have found that the relationship between them is age-
specific. So, the relationship between nurses’ coping strategies
and emotional responses during a major infectious disease such as
COVID-19 needs further research to clarify. Students’ mental
health during the physical closure of public life heavily
depended on a level of change in usual daily routine and a social
support they were receiving during that challenging period of
time. During the months of closure students lived in very diverse
environments and they had to run their social life in a different
way than they were used to. The students worldwide communicated
online at least once a day with close family members, someone
they live with, e.g. roommate r they used social networks. By
maintaining their social contacts students helped others and
themselves keeping their mental health in the unprecedented
period of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (Aristovnik, A.
et al., 2020).
Consequently, we posit that married people pursuing tertiary
education especially on distance could have higher stressors than
their unmarried counterparts. We, therefore hypothesized that
there is no difference in stressors among married and unmarried
distance education students. This hypothesis is supported by
findings of some studies (Al-Sowygh, 2013; Kaufman, 2006; Reed et
al., 2011) that found differences in stressors among
married/unmarried and male/female students. The background
characteristics of these students in the studies in developed
context are different from that of Ghanaian distance education
students in terms of socio-economic background which gives space
to explore the hypothesis in a developing context.
 Synthesis
Based on the related studies about the influence of the different
variables, the researchers summarized them as stated herein.
In a period of just a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic, caused
by the novel coronavirus, has radically transformed the lives of
masses of people around the globe, including higher education
students. COVID-19 has disrupted the life of students that
greatly affect their mental health, well-being, behaviour and
education. The lifestyle adjustment needed of students to cope
with COVID-19 has offered a significant obstacle for many
families and individuals.
The pandemic significantly affect the behaviour of students
wherein students experience increased stress and anxiety due to
the COVID-19 outbreak. Multiple stressors were identified that
contributed to the increased levels of stress, anxiety, and
depressive thoughts among students. These included fear, anxiety
and worry about their own health and of their loved ones.
Moreover, students experience disruptions in their sleeping
patterns
In terms of their education, most students believe that COVID-19
pandemic affect their academic performance with varying degree
they have difficulty in concentrating, decreased social
interactions due to physical distancing, and increased concerns
on academic performance
To cope with stress and anxiety, participants have sought support
from others and helped themselves by adopting either negative or
positive coping mechanisms. Due to the long-lasting pandemic
situation and onerous measures such as lockdown and stay-at-home
orders, the COVID-19 pandemic brings negative impacts on higher
education. The findings of our study highlight the urgent need to
develop interventions and preventive strategies to address the
mental health of college students.