Learning Satisfaction and Post-Pandemic Adaptation in Highly Sensitive Middle-aged and Elderly Learners in the Face of Digital Learning Stress and Pandemic Anxiety
Author: Ya-Ling Wang (Department of Adult and Continuing Education, National Taiwan Normal University), Lin-Yu Chang (Department of Adult and Continuing Education, National Taiwan Normal University), Chi-Wen Luo (Department of Adult and Continuing Education, National Taiwan Normal University), Yu-Wen Lin (Department of Adult and Continuing Education, National Taiwan Normal University)
Vol.&No.：Vol. 70, No. 1
Date：March 2025
Pages：143-183
DOI：https://doi.org/10.6209/JORIES.202503_70(1).0005
Abstract：
Introduction
Population aging trends and the accelerated promotion and popularization of digital learning in recent years, exacerbated by the global pandemic, have posed significant challenges and impacts to middle-aged and elderly learners on mental health, learning satisfaction, and psychological adoption, especially for middle-aged and elderly individuals with highly sensitive traits. This study aims to investigate the relationship between digital learning stress, pandemic anxiety, depression, learning satisfaction and post-pandemic experiences in highly sensitive middle-aged and elderly learners in the context of the widespread adoption of digital learning due to the pandemic, and explore the role of resilience as a mediating variable.
Literature Review
Highly Sensitive People (HSP) was first defined by Aron & Aron (1997) as “the in-depth processing (including unconsciousness) of internal and external stimuli under various circumstances, resulting in higher physiological and emotional responses.” The scientific term is “Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS)” People with high sensitivity are more susceptible to stimuli and are less likely to have adverse effects under stress than in the past. However, most studies on highly sensitive trait populations focus on children (Pluess & Boniwell, 2015) and adolescents (Iimura, 2022) as research subjects, there is a lack of research focusing on the elderly as the main research subjects. Organizations and nations worldwide recognize the critical importance of addressing population aging and actively respond to this challenge. Taiwan officially entered an ‘aging society’ in 1993, as the proportion of elderly population exceeded 7%. Sadan et al. (2021) observed that older adults exhibit a weaker adaption capacity to environmental changes. During environmental change, older adults suffered higher pressure. Highly sensitive trait populations are more likely to have negative reactions when stimulated by negative stressful environments (Aron & Aron, 1997). The trait is positively correlated with stress (Andresen et al., 2018; Gearhart & Bodie, 2012; Meyerson et ai., 2020). Systematic review studies indicate that SPS increases the risk of stress-related problems when responding to negative environments, but can also gain greater benefits from positive and supportive experiences (Greven, 2019). Therefore, this study aims to investigate middle-aged and elderly with highly sensitive traits, to explore if this population manifests similarly.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people suffering from depression increased by 25.6% globally (Santomauro et al., 2021). Many research have highlighted the negative impact of the epidemic on mental health. With psychological depression interventions, the life satisfaction and health status of middle-aged and elderly people can be improved, and loneliness can be alleviated (Jo & Kim, 2008). When life satisfaction is significantly improved, depression will decrease (Lee, 2020; MAltun & Yazici, 2015). Reviewing the meta-analysis and literature review related to depression and anxiety, studies have pointed out that brief passive psychoeducation intervention for depression and psychological distress can reduce symptoms (Donker, 2009), and physical activity can reduce depression and anxiety in non-clinical populations (Duncan, 2015).
Furthermore, relevant research has pointed out that resilience can serve as a mediating factor that affects the relationship between environmental stress and mental health. (Chang, 2012; Egeland et al., 1993; Faircloth, 2017; Kim et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2017). Resilience also mediates the relationship between Covid-19 stress and mental health (including depression and anxiety). The higher the stress related to the epidemic, the lower the resilience, and the higher the depression and anxiety (Ho et al., 2022; Kumar et al., 2022). As discussed above, resilience is one of the key factors for individuals facing negative environmental stress (including pandemic anxiety, and digital learning stress), which in turn affects their psychological adaptation.
Methodology
Data collection for this study was conducted through a questionnaire survey targeting individuals aged 45 and above who have experience with digital learning. The questionnaire included 7 scales: highly sensitive people traits, pandemic anxiety, digital learning pressure, depression, learning satisfaction, resilience, and post-epidemic positive moods. The pre-test was conducted in Dec. 2022 by digital questionnaires. A total of 106 valid responses were collected (41 male, 65 female, mean age = 60.00, SD = 1.41). All scales were subjected to exploratory factor analysis after the pre-test. Internal consistency was confirmed and the questions in these constructs were stable and consistent. A total of 208 valid responses were collected (72 male, 136 female, mean age = 57.93, SD = 6.79). The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with the Bootstrap statistical method for mediation analysis.
Finding
The results of the study revealed the following key findings: 1. Middle-aged and elderly individuals with higher levels of highly sensitive traits experienced higher levels of pandemic anxiety and digital learning stress. 2. Resilience played a significant mediating role in the relationship between pandemic anxiety and depression. Higher pandemic anxiety was associated with lower resilience, leading to increased depression. Additionally, resilience partially mediated the relationship between digital learning stress and depression as well as learning satisfaction. Greater digital learning stress was linked to reduced resilience, resulting in higher depression and lower learning satisfaction. 3. Elevated levels of depression and lower learning satisfaction among elderly individuals were associated with reduced post-pandemic positive experiences.
Discussion and Suggestion
Finally, several suggestions were proposed for future studies. The current study shows that the role of resilience plays in mediating pandemic anxiety and psychological depression. As well as the relationship between digital learning stress, psychological depression, and learning satisfaction. This suggests that for highly sensitive middle-aged and elderly learners, the higher the pandemic anxiety, the worse resilience, and the psychological depression are. The higher the digital learning stress, the worse resilience, and the psychological depression is, the worse learning satisfaction. In addition, after the peak of the pandemic, the post-pandemic positive experiences are still poor. The study's findings provide the psychological state insights of middle-aged and elderly learners with highly sensitive traits during the pandemic and e-learning environment. Future studies may conduct further research to develop more effective support strategies to enhance the resilience of the middle-aged and elderly. Which may help people face the challenges, reduce psychological depression, and increase their learning satisfaction. Also, improve the post-pandemic positive experiences, and mental health.
Keywords：middle-aged and elderly, pandemic anxiety, highly sensitive, resilience, digital learning stress