Existential Anxiety and Academic Self-Determination Among Senior High School Students During Covid-19 Pandemic
Jo Augustine Corpuz
Abstract:
At the heart of this COVID-19 pandemic lies the
students’ inner being and their weaving through these given
trials. This study aimed to explore the students’ levels of
existential anxiety and their academic self-determination.
To test the relationship of these two variables, descriptive
correlational method was employed. Respondents of the
study were 169 senior high school students in a private
school in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. Results showed
that students’ experience in existential anxiety significantly
differed in terms of sex, where females showed to be
more affected than males, though its levels appeared to
be mild. It also transpired that their level of academic selfdetermination was high which differed across their type of
family, indicating that students who were in a nuclear family
tended to experience more psychological needs satisfaction
compared to others. Apparently, no significant relationship
was revealed between their levels of existential anxiety
and academic self-determination during this crisis. Hence,
the seemingly unrelenting harsh occurrences that this
COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the lives of the students
have moderately risen certain anxiousness to their beings.
It further moderately increased the students’ awareness of
their vulnerability to be nonexistent, which simultaneously
caused them to ponder more about their fate and reflect on
the quality of the way they live.
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