High prevalence of anxiety, depression, and stress among remote learning students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a meta-analysis
- PMID: 36704682
- PMCID: PMC9871576
- DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1103925
High prevalence of anxiety, depression, and stress among remote learning students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a meta-analysis
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced all aspects significantly, and an estimated 1.5 billion students across the globe have been forced to keep up with online courses at home. Many recent empirical studies reported the prevalence of mental health problems among students caused by remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a few studies aggregated these results. Therefore, to strengthen statistical power, the article aimed to examine the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and stress among remote learning students during the COVID-19 pandemic via a meta-analysis. A total of 36 original articles have been selected from five academic databases, including Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, EBSCO, and Google Scholar, covering 78,674 participants in 19 nations, and yielding 60 effect sizes (22 for anxiety, 17 for depression, and 21 for stress) based on the random effects model via Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) software. The results showed that the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and stress among remote learning students during the COVID-19 pandemic was as high as 58, 50, and 71%, respectively. Besides, the moderator analysis found that (1) the prevalence of anxiety and depression among students in higher education was significantly higher than that of students in elementary education. (2) an increasing number of medical students and students in emergency remote learning context suffered from mental stress than their non-medical and traditional distance learning counterparts. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic triggers concerns related to physical health and mental disorders, especially for remote online learning students. The current situation should be brought to the forefront by educators to develop psychological interventions for relieving students' anxiety, depression, and stress during the pandemic period.
Keywords: COVID-19; anxiety; depression; mental health; meta-analysis; prevalence; remote learning students; stress.
Copyright © 2023 Xu and Wang.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Figures




Similar articles
-
Prevalence and correlates of depression and anxiety among Chinese international students in US colleges during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.PLoS One. 2022 Apr 14;17(4):e0267081. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267081. eCollection 2022. PLoS One. 2022. PMID: 35421199 Free PMC article.
-
Global prevalence of anxiety and depression among medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC Psychol. 2024 Jun 10;12(1):338. doi: 10.1186/s40359-024-01838-y. BMC Psychol. 2024. PMID: 38858700 Free PMC article.
-
Investigating Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Nursing Students During Remote Learning: An Experience from Dong A University, Vietnam.SAGE Open Nurs. 2022 Nov 4;8:23779608221135437. doi: 10.1177/23779608221135437. eCollection 2022 Jan-Dec. SAGE Open Nurs. 2022. PMID: 36353306 Free PMC article.
-
COVID-19 pandemic and emergency remote education practices: Effects on dentistry students.Niger J Clin Pract. 2022 May;25(5):621-629. doi: 10.4103/njcp.njcp_1564_21. Niger J Clin Pract. 2022. PMID: 35593604
-
Satisfaction with online education among students, faculty, and parents before and after the COVID-19 outbreak: Evidence from a meta-analysis.Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 13;14:1128034. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1128034. eCollection 2023. Front Psychol. 2023. PMID: 36860782 Free PMC article.
Cited by
-
Mental distress and well-being of university students amid COVID-19 pandemic: findings from an online integrative intervention for psychology trainees.Front Psychol. 2023 Jul 13;14:1171225. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1171225. eCollection 2023. Front Psychol. 2023. PMID: 37519360 Free PMC article.
-
The status of e-learning, personality traits, and coping styles among medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study.Front Psychiatry. 2023 Sep 25;14:1239583. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1239583. eCollection 2023. Front Psychiatry. 2023. PMID: 37817833 Free PMC article.
-
Understanding School Anxiety in Italian Adolescence through an Artificial Neural Network: Influence of Social Skills and Coping Strategies.Children (Basel). 2023 Oct 14;10(10):1688. doi: 10.3390/children10101688. Children (Basel). 2023. PMID: 37892351 Free PMC article.
-
Psychological distress and mental health disparities over time between tertiary students and non-student working peers in Australia.Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2025 Jun 19. doi: 10.1007/s00127-025-02953-w. Online ahead of print. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2025. PMID: 40537605
-
Remote online teaching beyond COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study across Physiotherapy programs in Italy.BMC Med Educ. 2025 Jul 15;25(1):1061. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07386-2. BMC Med Educ. 2025. PMID: 40665301 Free PMC article.
References
-
- Adnan M., Anwar K. (2020). Online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic: students perspectives. J. Pedagog. Res. 1, 45–51. doi: 10.33902/jpsp.2020261309 - DOI
-
- Aknin L., Andretti B., Goldszmidt R., Helliwell J., Petherick A., De Neve J., et al. . (2022). Policy stringency and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal analysis of data from 15 countries. Lancet Public Health 7, e417–e426. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00060-3, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
-
- American College Health Association (2014). Reference group executive summary, Spring 2014. Available at: http://www.Acha-Ncha.org/Docs/ACHA-NCHA-II_ReferenceGroup_ExecutiveSumma...
Publication types
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources