COVID-19 Adapted Schooling and Adolescents' Academic and Socioemotional Adjustment

Adolescents' daily lives have been dramatically disrupted by COVID-19-related school closures and crisis-adapted educational arrangements (i.e., socially distanced in-person, hybrid, and remote learning models). Because schools serve as a primary socialization context for supporting youth's academic growth and socioemotional competence through interactions with adults and peers, the extended transition to COVID-adapted learning models may have altered adolescents' academic and socioemotional development and posed threats to their mental health. Even more concerning is that the far-reaching consequences of these school disruptions may have disproportionately impacted youth living in economically disadvantaged communities. Educators and policymakers had little empirical guidance when designing long-term contingency plans for extended disruption or suspension of in-person learning in response to a multi-systemic pandemic-level threat. Moreover, school personnel and researchers knew very little about how COVID-adapted in-person, hybrid, and remote learning models would impact youth's peri- and post-pandemic mental health, academic growth, and socioemotional development. This project will capitalize on three multi-jurisdictional, longitudinal datasets collected before and during the pandemic to examine the individual, family, and school factors that mitigate or exacerbate the impact of school disruptions on youth's adjustment and development. Findings will provide empirical evidence that can inform school policy and practice for balancing crisis-adapted learning with adolescents' academic, socioemotional, and mental health needs, especially for those from low-income families.