College Students' Degree of Support for Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Associated Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study

Xincheng Huang; Yuqian Deng; Pu Ge; Xiaonan Sun; Mengjie Huang; Hejie Chen; Yanyan Wang; Baojun Suo; Zhiqiang Song; Yibo Wu

doi:10.3390/ijerph192416814

College Students' Degree of Support for Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Associated Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 14;19(24):16814. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416814.

Authors

Xincheng Huang¹, Yuqian Deng², Pu Ge³, Xiaonan Sun⁴, Mengjie Huang⁵, Hejie Chen¹, Yanyan Wang¹, Baojun Suo⁶, Zhiqiang Song⁶, Yibo Wu⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics and Management, Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, Beijing 102600, China.
² Xiangya School of Nursing, Central South University, Changsha 410008, China.
³ Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macao 999078, China.
⁴ Department of Social Science and Humanities, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, China.
⁵ School of Public Health, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China.
⁶ Department of Gastroenterology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China.
⁷ School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.

Abstract

Background: Educational institutions worldwide have experienced the suspension of offline teaching activities in favor of online teaching due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have focused on the degree of support for online learning among college students in mainland China. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the degree of support for online learning among Chinese college students during the epidemic and whether depression, loneliness, family communication, and social support were associated factors.

Methods: A questionnaire was used to collect cross-sectional data from 9319 college students in mainland China, and a structural equation model was analyzed.

Results: The results of the study showed high degrees of support for online learning among Chinese college students during the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than half expressing support. The SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) results showed that depression had a negative and significant effect on college students' support for online learning (β = -0.07; p < 0.001); family communication had a positive and significant effect on college students' support for online learning (β = 0.09; p < 0.001); social support had a positive and significant effect on college students' support for online learning (β = 0.11; p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Social support and family communication can alleviate the negative psychological status of college students, and depression plays a mediating role in the effect of social support and family communication on college students' degree of support for online learning. In addition, a significant chain-mediating effect was found of family communication, loneliness, and depression between social support and college students' degree of support for online learning. Government and education institutions must focus on college students' mental health issues and consider family interventions and general support that college students require.

Keywords: COVID-19; SEM; college students; coronavirus disease 2019; family communication; negative status; online learning; social support.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Education, Distance*
Humans
Pandemics
Students

Associated data

ChiCTR/ChiCTR2200061046

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project number: 82170562).