What is it about?
This longitudinal study followed 443 German university students from pre-pandemic (summer 2019) to during the COVID-19 disruption (summer 2020). Resilience was defined as how mental and physical health changed under academic stress—modeled as latent change in emotional exhaustion, depressive symptoms, and somatization, while controlling for study stressors such as workload, work complexity, and changes in study time.
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Why is it important?
The study shows that “resilience” isn’t just a trait—it’s visible in who deteriorates less (or adapts better) when demands rise. A clear pattern emerged: Academic self-efficacy (before the crisis) predicted better adaptation across all outcomes. A competitive climate predicted worse adaptation across all outcomes. Performance pressure mattered mainly for increases in exhaustion. Social support (especially from lecturers) did not show the expected protective pattern and was even linked to steeper increases in some symptoms—highlighting that when and how support is available may be crucial. Practically, this points universities toward modifiable levers: strengthen students’ efficacy beliefs and reduce structural drivers of competition/performance pressure before the next disruption hits.
Perspectives
When study demands surge (as they did during COVID), academic self-efficacy is a high-impact personal resource, while competition is a corrosive hindrance demand that undermines resilience over time. It is important to build self-efficacy through mastery experiences, feedback and role modeling, and redesign learning environments to de-emphasize rivalry (e.g., cooperative formats, peer support structures) and reduce chronic performance pressure.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Rigotti
Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (LIR) and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Predictors of resilience of university students to educational stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study in Germany., International Journal of Stress Management, February 2023, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/str0000289.
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