Negative emotional experiences during school closure by COVID-19 in a sample of students in Chile

Background: In 2019, schools closed face-to-face as a containment measure in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which implied a change in the traditional processes of education and socialization among adolescents. Objective: identify negative emotional experiences in students from three vulnerable communes of the Metropolitan Region of Chile during this period. Methods: 3,570 students between 10 and 18 years of age from 50 public educational establishments completed an evaluation instrument of socioemotional conditions through an online platform. The average age was 12.65 (D.S=1.90) and 52.5% identified with the male gender. Data were analyzed through the chi(2) test and Latent Class Analysis. Results: the most experienced emotions were loneliness and fear, the least frequent was boredom. Four types of negative emotional experiences were found: (1) the experience of loneliness (7%); (2) the combined experience of worry, fear, and loneliness (35.4%); (3) the generalized experience of negative emotions (9.6%) and (4) the experience low frequency of negative emotions (48.1%). Conclusions: Students present four types of emotional experiences, three of which, could alert them of a possible mental health problem. These data should be considered when planning the short and long-term health response.