Faculty and Students’ Coping Strategies in Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Design
Keywords:
Pandemic, COVID-19, Teaching and Learning, Coping, Education, Teachers, StudentsAbstract
Research Questions: 1. How do students cope with stressful Covid-19 situations? 2. How do faculty cope with stressful Covid-19 situations?3. What are the differences or similarities between students and faculty coping strategies?
Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate how faculty and students coped with stressful situations at three time points during the Covid-19 pandemic and what other stressors were having an effect in faculty and students’ coping mechanisms.
Methods: An online survey was disseminated to all participants. The survey was modified and adapted from the COPE Inventory, Brief COPE inventory, and the Brief Resilient Coping Scale. Participants included students (783) and faculty (216), and the statistical analyses used were a mixed methods design.
Results: Multiple analysis of variance and repeated measures analysis were used. Coping strategies for faculty and students were statistically significant in response to the overall impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, (p= <.001), emergency online teaching and learning, (p= <.001), and the continued online teaching and learning (p= <.001). Overall, in all three time points, faculty used adaptive coping strategies to a greater extent than students. Both groups reported that they were experiencing several perceived stressors.
Conclusions: The results highlight the faculty and students’ coping strategies in response to the pandemic. The study also highlights other stressors reported by the respondents, such as being afraid to lose their jobs, lack of childcare options, lack of good instruction, and stressors compounding mental health problems. In planning for future crises like the pandemic, community colleges and universities can plan to mitigate the risks associated with stressful situations, institute trainings, and establish support systems for faculty and students that will help address mental health in the face of the pandemic.
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