Presentation Schedule
Impact of the COVID Pandemic: College Students’ Reflections on Challenges and Personal Growth (94176)
Session Chair: Douglas Moodie
Saturday, 12 July 2025 10:25
Session: Session 1
Room: UCL Torrington, G09 (Ground Floor)
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation
The impact of COVID on college students’ lives is still unfolding. Research has delved into students’ self-reflections to gauge how students viewed their experiences during the pandemic (Kelly et al. 2021; Wintacha et al. 2021). These self-reflections offered students a venue to reflect deeply and express their thoughts and feelings, helping them better process their experiences. The ultimate goal of self-reflection is the hope that it will help students move forward successfully in the post-pandemic era after overcoming difficulties and challenges to their lives. The current study analyzed a group of college students’ self-reflections on the challenges and personal growth during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifty psychology undergraduate students participated in this qualitative study. The participants ranged from first year to last year college students, mostly female, and were from different ages, ethnic groups, and social economic backgrounds. Their reflections were the voluntary responses to a prompt “Briefly share your personal challenges during the COVID pandemic and any insights or personal growth gained from the experience.” Content analysis was performed to examine and analyze the data. Topics or themes of challenges and personal growth were identified. These themes fell into five broad categories: academic, social, relationships, health, and family. The results shed light on how college students encountered different challenges during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and more importantly, how they overcame these challenges and gained tremendous personal growth in the process that is beneficial to them moving forward.
Authors:
Ginny Zhan, Kennesaw State University, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Ginny Zhan is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at Kennesaw State University in United States
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