School Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Academic Motivation,Peer Connectednessss,and School Liking Among Gifted and Nonidentified Early Adolescents

Abstract

This longitudinal study tracked the trajectories of school well-being of gifted and nonidentified early adolescents before and through the COVID-19 pandemic (2019–2022). We used a prospective cohort panel design that followed students (N =1,033) from Grade 3 until the end of Grade 6. Three aspects of school well-being were examined through both hedonic and eudaimonic views of well-being: school liking, peer connectedness, and academic motivation. Longitudinal multilevel modeling showed that the pandemic was associated with negative shifts in students’ academic motivation, but not with school liking or peer connectedness. When considering students’ gifted status, students gifted in superior cognitive abilities, reading, or math showed similar trajectories of school liking but greater declines in peer connectedness than their nonidentified peers, especially during the pandemic years. The gifted students also showed a slower rate of growth in math expectancy than nonidentified students over time, regardless of the state of the pandemic. Students gifted in math experienced a shift from high and stable academic motivation in the prepandemic years to a decline during the pandemic, while other students experienced a shift from growth in academic motivation before the pandemic to maintaining the same or lower levels during the pandemic. Our findings shed light on gifted early adolescents’ resilience and vulnerability during transitions and upheavals like the pandemic, illuminating future research directions on how schools can differentiate their adaptation and support for gifted students at a uniquely important time in their development.

Plain Language Summary

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Gifted and Nonidentified Youths’ Feeling About School, Their Motivation to Learn, and Their Relationships with Peers

This study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic affected how preteens (in Grades 3 through 6) felt about school, how motivated they were to learn, and their relationships with peers. We followed the same group of more than 1,000 students from before the pandemic (in 2019) all the way through 2022. Based on the full study sample, we found that the pandemic made students less motivated in math. However, the pandemic did not seem to change how much they liked school or how connected they felt to their friends. When we looked specifically at students who were identified as gifted in areas like cognitive ability, reading, or math, we saw some differences. Gifted students liked school about as much as students not identified as gifted before and during the pandemic. However, gifted students felt less connected to their friends than did students not identified as gifted before the pandemic, and this difference widened during the pandemic. In contrast, when looking specifically into students gifted in math, they felt more connected to their friends than non-math-gifted students before the pandemic, but the difference between the two groups narrowed over time as math-gifted students became less connected with their peers. Students gifted in math started with high motivation in math, but it went down during the pandemic. In contrast, students who were not gifted in math had been getting more motivated in math before the pandemic, but the growth stopped during the pandemic. These non-math-gifted students maintained their math motivation during the pandemic either at or below their prepandemic level. Overall, our findings indicate that the pandemic affected gifted students and students not identified as gifted in some unique ways. Our findings can help schools figure out better ways to support gifted students and students not identified as gifted during challenging times.