Anxiety in a COVID-19 school year context: three-way longitudinal study on Slovenian adolescent sample

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives

We investigated the trajectories of anxiety, general anxiety and more specifically COVID-19 anxiety in the period of school closure in Slovenia using a longitudinal design with three time points: at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the school year.

Design and Methods

We have used data from a representative adolescent sample for Slovenia (n = 1233) and two anxiety scales: the LAOM Anxiety Scale and the COVID-19 Anxiety Scale. The findings from latent growth curve models show a significant difference in initial levels and a decrease in both types of anxiety as well as an interaction effect between the initial level and the rate of change of COVID-19 anxiety. In addition to investigating the change in time, we were interested in covariates.

Results and Conclusions

The findings show significant effects of: (a) gender, school level and academic achievement on initial levels of COVID-19 anxiety; (b) gender and school level on initial levels of anxiety; (c) gender on the rate of change in anxiety; (d) academic achievement on the rate of change in COVID-19 anxiety; and, additionally, (e) the significant but different role that school belongingness plays in anxiety and in particular COVID-19 anxiety.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• COVID-19 anxiety
• gender
• grades
• school belongingness
• adolescence

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency under Grant J5-1781. The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS [grant number: J5-1781].