COVID-19 influence on engagement in Swedish children at year 6

Sammanfattning: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a period of time that undoubtedly altered our lives in different ways. Within the educational field, the way students engage and interact within the school have changed during these years due to the social distancing, virtual classes, etc. Therefor the present study investigated the engagement in school activities of year 6 Swedish students before and during the COVID-pandemic. Teachers rated the engagement of students (N=379) distributed in two groups (before and under pandemic).  The aim was to explore if the group measured before Covid-19 would differ in engagement and disengagement from those measured during the outbreak. The result found no differences in engagement but higher disengagement in the Covid-19 group. Variables, other than the pandemic, that could have an influence on engagement/disengagement (i.e., gender, children per class, foreign background and/or being at risk of school failing) were compared between groups but did not seem to explain the difference in disengagement between the groups. Given the lack of research about student engagement and the COVID situation, more research is needed to explore the difference found between student disengagement before and under the pandemic. In addition, the differential effects of Covid restrictions on students with low and high disengagement already before Covid needs to be investigated.