The Resilience of Maltese Children during COVID-19

This study has been carried out by the Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health at the University of Malta in collaboration with Flinders University, Australia. It sought to explore the wellbeing, mental health and resilience of Maltese 11-16 year old school children during the first wave of the pandemic when schools were closed in 2020. An online survey examining subjective wellbeing, depression, anxiety, resilience, coping strategies and the positive and negative aspects of the pandemic, was sent to a representative sample of middle and secondary school students in Malta and Gozo. The final sample consisted of 455 students (Year 7 to Year 11) from state, church and independent schools.
Nearly half (47%) of the students were flourishing, while a small proportion (11%)
were languishing in their wellbeing. While numbers were small, student wellbeing decreased across year levels (Year 7 to Year 10), with the lowest level of wellbeing reported in Year 10. Overall, male participants tended to show better subjective wellbeing than females, although this was not a consistent trend at all Year levels. There was an increase in the likelihood of languishing in wellbeing after four months of lockdown, however the effect size was small.