Abstract
Social support was an important factor in minimizing the effect of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. This research aimed to study the role of online class participation and social media usage to link the social support available from family and friends to psychological resilience among pre-service special education teachers against the negative psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. A survey was conducted with 377 pre-service special needs education (SNE) teachers enrolled at universities in Pakistan. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied using Smart-PLS 3.2.8. Results revealed that social media and online class participation played a mediating role between social support and psychological resilience in the pre-service special needs education (SNE) teachers studied. Teacher education institutions can devise strategies to develop social media platforms for student socialization during an emergency to help build resilience against the negative psychological effects of social isolation. Future studies could be conducted to adapt instructions and curricula to social media environments for education in an emergency.
Highlights
Published: 14 November 2021Universities across the globe shifted from face-to-face learning to online learning during the COVID-19 lockdown [1,2,3]
This study aimed to understand the effect of social support from family and friends on psychological resilience among pre-service special education teachers
It was observed that family support has a direct effect on psychological resilience, but friends’ support did not influence psychological resilience directly because pre-service special needs education (SNE) teachers’ face-to-face interaction was cut off from their friends due to the lockdown
Summary
Universities across the globe shifted from face-to-face learning to online learning during the COVID-19 lockdown [1,2,3]. This shift increased social isolation, resulting in several psychological problems among higher education students, such as anxiety, stress, and depression [4]. Students themselves or their families and friends have been adversely affected by the spread of the pandemic. Social support from friends and family was an important factor in the psychological well-being of the students
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