| Abstract [eng] |
During an unprecedented situation, when the quarantine started in the country, many restrictions and prohibitions came into force and one of them was studying in contact. Such significant changes in an adolescent’s life can have a major impact on his mental health. Considering the current situation, this work aims to reveal the distance education experience of fifth to eighth-grade students regarding their mental health. There was an opportunity to join a team of researchers on their project "Distance education of children during the COVID-19 pandemic: threats and opportunities from an ecosystemic perspective" (No. S-COV-20-11). Data used in this work is from the aforementioned project and several additional student interviews. Participants in the study were selected by the snowball sampling method. A total of 20 students from fifth to eighth grade were interviewed. Seeking diversity, the selected children were from the city, suburbs, and rural settlements. Semi-structured interviews in groups and individual interviews with children were used to conduct the research. Interview schemes were prepared based on the recommendations of Braun & Clarke (2013), and Girdzijauskienė (2006). To analyze the results, a qualitative research paradigm was chosen (thematic analysis method). During the analysis, six different themes emerged, and some of them contained different subtopics. The results displayed that students' behavior, emotions, and interpersonal relationships changed during distance learning. In other words, distance learning, according to progymnasium students, had a diverse impact on their mental health. |
