The Difference in Learning Activities of Postgraduate Students of Different Qualification Types Under the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multi-Group Latent Class Analysis

Zhengyan Liang; Jinqing Wang; Minqiang Zhang; Yingshi He; Jiaxin Quan; Da Yi

doi:10.2147/PRBM.S358118

The Difference in Learning Activities of Postgraduate Students of Different Qualification Types Under the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multi-Group Latent Class Analysis

Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2022 Jun 13:15:1495-1504. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S358118. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zhengyan Liang¹, Jinqing Wang¹, Minqiang Zhang^{1

2

3

4}, Yingshi He¹, Jiaxin Quan¹, Da Yi¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
² Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
³ Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Introduction: There are two types of master's qualifications in China. One is the academic qualification that pays more attention to academic research, aiming to cultivate research-oriented talents; while the other is the application-oriented qualification that focuses more on practical ability, aiming to cultivate applied-oriented talents. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the COVID-19 on the learning activities of postgraduate students, as well as the differences in the extent to which the learning activities of postgraduate students of different qualification types are affected and their mental health status.

Methods: A self-constructed scale for the pandemic's impact on master's students, the self-rating anxiety scale and the self-rating depression scale were applied in the study. The single- and multi-group latent class analyses were used to investigate the impact of the pandemic on postgraduate students of different qualification types.

Results: A total of 2818 responses were collected. The single-group latent class analysis identified four classes. The multi-group latent class analysis showed that no absolute homogeneity existed between different groups. In general, the number of academic master's students affected was greater than application-oriented master's students. Application-oriented master's students were more affected by course activities, while academic master's students were more affected by academic and social activities. Results show that individuals more affected had higher levels of anxiety and depression. Compared to course activities, impacts on social activities were more likely to cause anxiety and depression.

Discussion: Universities can provide a more flexible way of assistance to different qualification types of postgraduate students. Furthermore, social activities play an important role in the mental health of postgraduate students. Therefore, under the background of normalization of pandemic prevention and control, schools should pay more attention to students' interpersonal communication activities to help relieve students' anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; academic postgraduate students; application-oriented postgraduate students; learning activities; multi-group latent class analysis.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the key project of the Chinese National Social Science Fund, “Research on Problems and System Innovation in Educational Integrated Development in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” (Grant Number: AGA200016).