The Impact of Online Education on Primary and Secondary Students’ Academic Performance and Mental Health During the Covid-19

This paper investigates the impact of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic in China on academic performance and mental health among primary and secondary school students. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies and the First-difference (FD) estimation strategy, we find that online education during the pandemic led to a 5.3 and 6.6 percent decrease in the probability that students' performance in Chinese and math was rated as good by their parents, respectively; it led to a 6.3 percent increase in the probability that students experienced depressive symptoms and resulted in a significant decrease in students' subjective well-being. Heterogeneous analysis implies that the greater the negative impact of school closure and online education on students' math performance when parents had lower levels of education and smaller housing size; students whose parents work full-time have a greater negative impact on mental health and well-being compared with at least one parent who does not work. Secondly, as a main contribution of the paper, we explore the potential mechanisms from the perspectives of social networks and time allocation. We find that it resulted in worse interpersonal relationships and parent-child relationships, more study time, and less sleep, physical exercise time, and leisure time, but it did not significantly affect students' satisfaction with schools and teachers. The results provide valuable information for enhancing emergency response strategies and mitigating the negative impact of such public health crises.