Academic Performance during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Relationship with Demographic Factors and Alcohol Consumption in College Students.

Julio César Vargas-Ramos,Claudia Lerma,Claudia Margarita González-Fragoso,Abel Lerma,Rebeca María Elena Guzmán-Saldaña,Lilian Elizabeth Bosques-Brugada

doi:10.3390/ijerph19010365

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many changes in the education sector worldwide, and school curricula have had to adapt to a non-face-to-face modality. However, international studies have concluded that this modality has affected the academic performance of students. The present study aimed to compare the academic performance of a sample of college students from before the start of quarantine with their current performance, and to test whether various demographic factors influenced these changes in conjunction with alcohol consumption. With a non-experimental, comparative and longitudinal design, we applied an ad hoc questionnaire, in conjunction with the AUDIT questionnaire, in a sample of college students (n = 341), and we also obtained data of academic average and failed subjects. The demographic factors that influenced academic performance were sex (p < 0.01), age (p < 0.01) and alcohol consumption (p = 0.001). Most students showed an improvement in their academic average during the quarantine period. Women without failed subjects and low-risk alcohol consumption obtained a better average in this period. In conclusion sex, age and alcohol consumption level were factors associated with academic performance during the quarantine period due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and women had a higher academic average than men did.

Highlights

Since the start of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, educational institutions around the world had to adopt a non-face-to-face modality to continue with educational plans, seeking the use of different technologies to allow synchronous and asynchronous communication between students and teachers [1]
Descriptive Results and Demographic Factors Related to Academic Performance
Students showed an improvement in their academic performance during the confinement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to the period before this

Summary

Introduction

A high level of anxiety and stress has been observed in students, caused by the lack of accessibility to technology or the internet, the inefficiency of educational institutions to adopt this modality, and the fear of losing the school year [3,4,5]. These consequences are increased in those students who do not have enough financial and material resources to be able to take their classes under this modality [6]. The students perceive that under this modality, a greater effort is required on their part and that the teachers do not have enough skills to teach using this kind of technology [7]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion