COVID-19 Student Survey Results

Posted on June 2, 2021

Pride Surveys recently conducted a statewide COVID-19 student survey with over 40,000 students regarding their feelings and experiences during the pandemic. The students were asked to give honest answers regarding the impact on their education, mental health, and whether or not they felt safe. At Pride Surveys, we have remained committed to collecting critical data throughout the pandemic to understand the short and long-term repercussions of COVID-19 on youth behaviors.

Education Experience

Students between sixth and twelfth grade were asked several questions to determine how they felt when it came to education during the pandemic. When posed the question of how safe they would feel returning to school at the time, 71.1% of the combined responses were “safe” or “very safe.”

The second question regarding education on the COVID-19 student survey was around online versus in-person school. While 13.1% combined did not have a preference and 10% responded “I don’t know,” it was interesting to discover that 57.5% of the students surveyed preferred learning in-school versus only 18.9% that responded with “online.” This is interesting when compared with research showing that students attending online school have often fallen behind their peers during the pandemic.

When asked about access to school counseling services, the combined response of those answering “yes” was only 57.9%. This is undoubtedly a cause for concern since the impacts on school-aged children’s mental health and stress remain unknown. Having resources readily available can substantially affect helping to alleviate some of the challenges. To avoid confusion, special care was taken in the question to define counseling services as “counselors who can help with mental health, feelings, or problems students may be experiencing.”

Relationships and Mental Health

Further on this topic, Pride Surveys generated three questions on the COVID-19 student survey to determine how relationships shifted during the pandemic.

When students were asked about their relationships with their families, who they live with, a positive response was that a combined 82.5% of the respondents said those relationships had stayed the same, were somewhat better, or were much better.

Safety Precautions

Pride Surveys asked several questions during the COVID-19 student survey regarding the safety precautions taken by the respondents or people they knew. The responses were not particularly surprising given the age group and the CDC data collected in 2020 showing that children did not spread COVID-19 as easily as adults, in addition to having a much smaller percentage of positive cases in those 18 and under that resulted in death or severe illness.

When asked if they stay six feet apart and practice social distancing when around people they did not live with, only 20% responded “always” versus the other 80%, answering “never,” “rarely,” “sometimes,” or “often.”

When asked the same question about what their friends were doing, the combined response of them “always” social distancing was a mere 11.5%.

The final question on the COVID-19 student survey was if they wore masks or face coverings when they are with their friends. 26% answered “always,” and a combined 41% responded “never” or “rarely.”

While the actual long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic remain to be seen, Pride Surveys is committed to helping provide survey resources for students, teachers, parents, and communities on this and other topics. Contact us today to learn more.

Resources:

CDC data collected in 2020

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/education/2020/12/13/covid-online-school-tutoring-plan/6334907002/