The move to remote learning triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic impacted billions of students globally in 2020. While research shows that school closure, and the pandemic more generally, has led to student distress, the possibility that these disruptions can also prompt growth in young people is a worthwhile question to investigate. The current study examined stress-related growth in a sample of students returning to campus following a period of COVID-19 remote learning (n = 404, age = 13–18; 50.2% female). The relationship between positive education (i.e., the degree to which wellbeing skills were taught at school prior to the COVID-19 outbreak) and student levels of stress-related growth upon returning to campus was tested via structural equation modeling. Additionally, the degree to which students engaged in positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use during the period of remote learning were examined as mediators. The model provided a good fit (χ2 = 5.37, df = 3, p = .146, RMSEA = .044 [90% CI = .00–.10], SRMR = .012, CFI = 99, TLI = .99) with 56% of the variance in stress-related growth explained. More specifically, the degree to which positive education was present at school explained 21% of stress-related growth (before including mediators). Positive education also explained 15% of the variance in cognitive reappraisal, 7% in emotional processing, and 16% in student strengths use during remote learning. The results are discussed using a positive psychology paradigm and implications for the teaching of wellbeing skills at school to foster adversarial growth are presented.
Positive education to promote flourishing in students returning to school after COVID-19 closure
