Student Well-being in Times of COVID-19 in the Netherlands

Since March 2020, measures surrounding COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in emergency remote teaching with, among others, fewer opportunities for interpersonal contact (Burns et al., 2020). This has caused changes in the learning environment and students' functioning in the academic system, which may likely lead to changes within their well-being. The current study aims to map student well-being in times of COVID-19, identifying both individual factors and structural factors in the learning environment.

Previous research has identified several individual factors that may influence student well-being in times of COVID-19. Amongst those are tolerance to uncertainty, resilience (growth), self-compassion, and attention regulation. In addition to these three individual factors, various factors within the learning environment may influence students' well-being. A sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness- as described within the Self-Determination Theory - play a central role in students' well-being. However, in times of social distancing and online education, it seems essential to investigate the potential of an adjusted learning environment to further fulfill students’ needs. That is why we are aiming to investigate these factors as potential predictors for student well-being, operationalised as positive and negative affect as well as life satisfaction.