A cross-level analysis about the impact of pandemic-related stressors, online learning satisfaction and coping on elementary school students’ psychological symptoms

This study was aimed to explore the influence of COVID-19 pandemic on elementary school students from cross-level perspective. With a cross-section survey, 823 elementary school students ( M age = 11.89, SD = 1.30) from 49 classes participated in the survey, which includes participants’ demographic variables (e.g., gender) and studied variables assessing by depression, anxiety, COVID-19 related stress and other relevant variables. The hierarchical linear model was used to analyze the relationship among studied variables. Results showed that the detection rate of elementary school students’ anxiety and depression symptoms were 24.2% and 23.3% respectively, which was higher than that before the pandemic broke out. For the influencing factors of elementary school student’s psychological symptoms, at the individual level, both online learning satisfaction and problem-based coping strategy were negatively related with student’s psychological symptoms, while both emotion-based coping strategy and pandemic-related stressors were positively related with them. Furthermore, emotion-based coping strategy could strengthen the positive relation between pandemic-related stressors and psychological symptoms. Emotion-based coping strategy (or online learning satisfaction) at the class level positively (or negatively) predicted psychological symptoms. The findings could add new knowledge about the influence of COVID-19 pandemic on elementary school students’ psychological symptoms, and are useful in promoting elementary school students’ mental health when the pandemic broke out.