PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC TOWARDS MALAYSIA’S SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been spreading all across the globe since December 2019. The pandemic has brought a threat by not only risking peoples’ lives but also impacting society’s mental well-being. This research aimed to discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological health of secondary school students in Malaysia who were expected to sit for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination in 2020 but it got postponed due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives of the proposed research revolve around the idea of investigating the underlying causes affecting these students’ mental well-being and identifying any coping mechanisms used to overcome this issue. A total of 137 respondents took part in completing the online survey from the period of February 16th to 21st 2021. Results indicated that 59.6% of the respondents are being psychologically impacted by the current pandemic, followed by 32.7% of the respondents who mentioned they somehow are being psychologically impacted, and 7.7% stating that the COVID-19 has not impacted them psychologically at all. A variety of external stressors led to a finding in the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7) that respondents were asked to respond to, indicating that 37.6% of respondents had extreme anxiety, 28.8% had moderate anxiety, 20.0% had mild anxiety, and 5.6% & had normal mental well-being. It is highly suggested that the mental health of secondary school students needs to be monitored by the respective authorities to achieve a quality education among the students.Keywords: Coronavirus, pandemic, students’ mental well-being, mental health, education, online distance learning