Students in secondary school turned to TV, video games and music to cope with being home all the time while schools were shut when the pandemic hit the island last year, University of Malta researchers found.
An online survey of 455 students from state, secondary and independent schools sought to explore the resilience of children aged between 11 and 16 when schools closed during the first wave of the pandemic.
The results, published on Wednesday, showed that although the majority (47 per cent) of respondents flourished during the time they spent at home, older students found the situation harder to handle and struggled more than their younger peers.
In fact, some 13 per cent of the children surveyed said they felt "moderately" depressed during that time.
And secondary school boys reported better subjective wellbeing than girls.
To cope with the pandemic, 68 per cent turned to TV, video games and music while 64 per cent sought the support and care of their family. Some 42 per cent also said they spent time on social media while 40 per cent tried to pass the time communicating with relatives such as grandparents.
"Middle school students appeared to make more use, in contrast to their
older secondary school peers, of family and online learning strategies," the researchers noted.
Best and worst parts of shutdown
Spending time with family and feeling safe at home was the most cited
positive aspect of the school shutdown experience with 40 per cent of respondents pointing to this. Having more free time was also seen as a positive aspect (19 per cent) while others also appreciated having more time to focus on things they liked and developing new interests (14 per cent).
Ten per cent of students mentioned that having no school was also a positive experience.
On the other hand, 51 per cent of the participants found the disruption of their normal life as the worst part of the experience, particularly having to stay at home and being deprived of social outings (26 per cent), and social contact with friends (25 per cent).
Ten per cent of students were lonely, bored and anxious but only 4 per cent said they were worried about being infected with the virus.
"The findings of this study suggest that overall Maltese children and young people adapted quite well to the challenges posed by the outbreak of the first wave of the pandemic including the closure of schools, recommended lockdown, and online learning," the report's authors said.
"Overall, most of the students enjoyed positive mental health and coped quite well during the pandemic lockdown. However, 11 per cent were experiencing difficulties in their wellbeing, whilst subjective wellbeing decreased across year levels from middle school to secondary school," the researchers noted in their conclusion.
They also pointed out secondary school males reported better subjective wellbeing than females.