Youth Emotional Experiences during COVID-19: Relations with Internalizing Problems and Social Support

The COVID-19 pandemic affected youth positively and negatively through regulations related to social distancing and remote learning. The current study aimed to understand youth’s positive and negative emotional experiences of COVID-19 and how emotions were associated with internalizing problems and social support from teachers and classmates. Seven hundred and fifteen students in fourth to twelfth grade from a suburban school district in the Northeast (53.4% female; 93.3% White) were asked to complete a survey from March to May 2021 assessing their emotional experiences, internalizing problems, and sense of social support during COVID-19. Data were analyzed and interpreted using descriptive statistics and regression analyses, including moderation. Results indicated that students experienced more positive emotions (M = 7.47) than negative emotions (M = 6.99) during COVID-19, and females experienced more negative emotions compared to males and gender non-conforming students. Negative emotions were significantly and positively related to internalizing problems and positive emotions were significantly and negatively related to internalizing problems for females. Additionally, high teacher and classmate support moderated, or buffered, the relation between negative emotions and internalizing behaviors. Further research is needed to better understand the positive and negative emotional experiences of COVID-19 among racially and ethnically diverse youth.