Helpful or harmful? The role of personality traits in student experiences of the COVID-19 crisis and school closure

Little is known about the individual differences in student experiences and expectations of the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting school closures. Yet, as the crisis may have uniquely impacted students, in either a helpful or harmful way, knowledge about students’ personality is highly relevant. The present paper explores whether particular personality traits, as measured through the lens of the Big Five scheme, amplified consequences of the crisis in 347 students in 35 Flemish secondary schools. Using two unique data sets, we show the importance of personality traits in students’ responses to the crisis with respect to multiple facets, including students’ well-being, remote learning experiences, perception of family and social life, and expectations of school results. In particular, while the crisis appears to have benefited students with high conscientiousness and openness, the reverse holds for students with high extraversion and neuroticism. Further, we find that only a few students expected a decrease in their school results. However, extraverted students were more likely to expect a decrease in school results than introverted students did.status: publishe