The Effect of Erratic Quarantine Lockdown Policy on Students' Stress in China

Abstract

Two years after the initial breakout, the COVID-19 epidemic is still spreading worldwide. As the virus mutates and becomes more contagious, several epidemic outbreaks in China led to serious public health crises in 2022. The government has adopted the Zero-COVID Policy, a draconian measure aiming to lockdown cities with infected people as a means to combat the contagion.  Cities are vigilant and cautious of the pandemic, implementing lockdowns whenever COVID-19 cases emerged. Learning has fundamentally changed. Schools need to comply with unpredictable lockdown policies and transition to online teaching. Students, on the other hand, need to overcome new difficulties and make adaptations to the sudden shift in teaching mode. Previous studies have indicated evidence suggesting that online study has the potential to bring anxiety and pressure. Under such erratic circumstances, the challenge of retaining study progress has been perceived as arduous by the general public, requiring students to finish all study tasks in the changing environment. Through questionnaire studies and interviews with students who underwent different policies in different regions, the main goal of the research is to investigate how stress differently affects students and trace the reasons for the tension of studying online.