Impact of Online Classes on the Mental Health of School Students during COVID-19 in Chennai

Background: The pandemic Covid-19 has affected the whole world drastically. Social distancing measures were implemented by all the countries. In order to practice social distancing, most governments had temporarily closed all the educational institutions. Traditional face to face learning was switched to online learning not to compromise on a student’s academic progress. The aim of this study is to observe the impact of online classes on the mental health of school students during covid-19 in Chennai.

Materials and Methods: A survey was conducted which was cross sectional. A self administered questionnaire was distributed among school students using an online platform google forms and 120 students participated in the survey. Data was collected and analysed by using SPSS software. Pearson Chi square was done to correlate the gender and mental illness of the participants.

Results: 43.33% felt that online classes were stressful. 54.17% of the participants were satisfied with this mode of learning. Female students were more stressed than male students which were not significant. Nearly 45% of female students were not satisfied with this mode of learning which was not significant. It was found that female students were more depressed than male students. However, statistically it is not significant (p = 0.06).

Conclusion: Based on this study, about 49.16% of the participants were impacted mentally and are stressed because of online learning and it has also affected their academic performance during this pandemic situation. This study may help them to know stress levels and be aware to take steps to overcome the stress and increase their academic performance.