Impact of Coronavirus Disease-19 Pandemic on the Academics of Adolescents of Amritsar City

Introduction: The recent pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 caused by novel coronavirus has caused countrywide school closures and adoption of online learning platform for adolescents. Children are facing anxiety and uncertainty regarding the future. Hence, the present study was planned to assess the impact of this pandemic on the academics of the adolescents. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among adolescents using snowball sampling technique from April 30, 2020, to May 30, 2020. After informed consent, a proforma including questions regarding their demographic characteristics, knowledge about COVID 19, academic practices and stress associated with that was administered to them. Data management and analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS. Results: Out of total 137 adolescents, 73 (53.3%) were males and 64 (46.7%) were females. The mean age of participants’ was 13.76 ± 2.9. About 91.2% were attending online classes while 8.8% were doing self- study. The majority of adolescents in the age group of 15-19 years were facing difficulty with online classes as compared to early adolescents. The proportion of older adolescents having screen time of more than 2 h was more than 80.0%. Conclusion: On statistical analysis, it was observed that middle and late age group of adolescents were facing significantly higher difficulty with online classes ( P < 0.001) and late adolescents were having significantly more screen time ( P < 0.001). The majority of male participants mentioned the use of mask and staying home was a right practice to prevent coronavirus infection and this was found to be statistically significant ( P = 0.014 and P = 0.029, respectively). Key words: Coronavirus disease 19, Lockdown, Adolescent, Academics