Life Stressors as Predictors of Community College Students’ Course Outcomes: The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Focusing Event

Abstract

Background or Context:

The COVID-19 pandemic may be considered a focusing event that has drawn greater attention to the physical and mental health of community college students.

Purpose, Objective, Research Question, or Focus of Study:

This study examined community college students’ self-reported life stressors pre- and post-pandemic-onset to identify any reported differences, both in occurrence and in impact on course completion.

Research Design:

Surveys were collected after the COVID-19 pandemic onset at the City University of New York’s largest community college. The 529 students enrolled in STEM subjects were asked about potentially stressful life events experienced during spring 2020 and how strongly these impacted the time or energy they had for their studies (response rate 88.2%).

Conclusions or Recommendations:

Students’ reporting of the presence of life stressors, as well as their rating of the impact on their studies, were significantly predictive of subsequent course outcomes. However, stressors reported as beginning prior to the pandemic had a larger and more significant relationship with course outcomes than those reported as beginning after pandemic onset. Further, stressors were already highly prevalent prepandemic, with over three-quarters of students reporting them. Although the pandemic may have drawn attention to the existence and impact of stressors, it may simply be a focusing event that drew heightened attention to a pre-existing issue. Results from this study indicate that life stress may significantly impact the outcomes of community college students even outside of pandemic conditions, suggesting that this is a critical area for community colleges to address.

Keywords

stress COVID-19 pandemic course retention time capital body capital

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