Editorial: Long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and well-being in education: underlying mechanisms and intervention strategies

2024, underscoring the growing centrality of mental health and well-being in educational scholarship and their relevance for educational quality and institutional sustainability.The COVID-19 pandemic intensified this agenda by producing a disruption that was simultaneously epidemiological, social, and pedagogical. Educational institutions were not merely asked to adapt; they were forced to reorganize key educational processes under conditions of uncertainty. During and after the pandemic, educational contexts also became sites of marked emotional and psychological strain for children and adolescents, highlighting the enduring impact of COVID-19 on mental health in education [1], [9], [10]. UNESCO's recovery documentation shows that school closures were monitored globally from February 2020 to June 2022, and that the effects of the crisis extended far beyond temporary interruption, with vulnerable learners disproportionately affected [1]. Research has argued that COVID-19 school closures had substantial implications not only for learning but also for children's mental health, as students experienced serious disruption to both their school and social lives, and policy responses were not always sufficiently informed by psychological evidence [11]. In higher education and teacher education contexts, the pandemic likewise intensified concerns regarding emotional exhaustion, stress, anxiety, and adaptation [12]. Thus, COVID-19 should not be framed only as a public health emergency that happened to affect education, but as a global event that redefined the psychosocial conditions of educational participation itself.What has become increasingly clear in the years since reopening is that the effects of the pandemic on educational mental health are not simply residual; in many settings, they remain embedded in everyday educational experience. Post-pandemic evidence continues to document sustained strain among young people and university students. WHO/Europe reported in 2024 that only 68% of adolescents across Europe, Central Asia, and Canada reported high levels of family support, while school pressure had risen sharply, especially among girls [13]. In a 2024 cross-country survey, university students in Southern Europe showed substantial differences in anxiety, depression, suicidal risk, academic stress, and confidence in their professional future during the post-COVID phase [2]. Likewise, a 2024 study in China concluded that one year after the pandemic, the overall mental health of college students remained suboptimal, suggesting that the longterm effects of COVID-19 may already have accumulated [14]. These findings reinforce the need to examine not only outcomes but also the mechanisms that sustain vulnerability or resilience, as well as the intervention strategies that can support educational communities in the long aftermath of the pandemic. It is within this context that the present Research Topic is situated.In response to this need, we proposed and developed this Research Topic to bring together research examining the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for Deleted: a large review of research published from 2020 to mid-February 2024 identified 103 empirical studies on teacher well-being during the COVID-19 period, Deleted: . Deleted: the present Research Topic brings together 18 contributions that collectively examine mental health and well-being across diverse educational settings. As Topic Editors, we sought contributions that would move beyond documenting post-pandemic distress alone by clarifying the mechanisms that sustain vulnerability or foster resilience, identifying the pedagogical and institutional conditions that shape educational experience, and pointing toward intervention-relevant strategies for supporting students, teachers, and academic communities in the prolonged aftermath of large-scale disruption.The 18 contributions ultimately included in the collection reflect this aim while also extending it in several important and, in some cases, unexpected directions. One particularly notable feature was the breadth of the populations, settings, and outcomes represented. While we anticipated a strong emphasis on student distress and recovery, the submissions also highlighted career aspirations, digital practices, online psychotherapy, neurocultural approaches, cognitive reserve, and the institutional conditions shaping educator and student well-being.A first contribution of this Research Topic lies in showing that the long-term mental health burden of the pandemic remains visible across multiple educational actors and settings. Across the collection, post-pandemic strain appears not as an isolated or already resolved phenomenon, but as an enduring reality expressed through stress, loneliness, emotional exhaustion, academic strain, and disrupted adaptation [15], [16]. Among educators, Peris-Ramos et al. [15] identify important differences in stress-related indicators across disciplinary fields in Spain, Colombia, and Chile, suggesting that the psychological burden of the post-pandemic period has not been evenly distributed within the teaching profession. In higher education, Magorokosho et al. [16], Guerra-Tamez [17], Zhang et al. [18], Wittayapun et al. [19], and Yeomans-Cabrera et al. [20] collectively show that university students' experiences continue to be shaped by stress, anxiety, depression, sleep-related difficulties, fatigue, emotional exhaustion, and challenges to resilience and well-being. In medical education, Kayalackakom et al. [21] and Duarte et al. [22] show that disruptions to routines, reduced face-to-face interaction, academic difficulties, emotional strain, and challenges to neurocognitive resilience remained salient even as students attempted to adapt. Taken together, these studies show that the long-term effects of COVID-19 continue to cut across teaching, learning, and professional training environments rather than belonging only to the emergency phase of the pandemic.A second strength of the collection is that it helps clarify the mechanisms through which vulnerability may be sustained and resilience fostered. Rather than treating postpandemic mental health outcomes as direct consequences of disruption alone, several contributions highlight mediating processes that shape how educational actors respond to adversity. One important mechanism is the quality of engagement itself. In Mexico, Guerra-Tamez [17] shows that immersive educational experiences associated with flow Deleted: Taken together, these studies go beyond documenting post-pandemic distress alone. They also illuminate the mechanisms that may sustain vulnerability or foster resilience, identify Deleted: important differences in stress-related indicators emerge across disciplinary fields Deleted: [15]. In Deleted: this persistence is likewise evident among university students, whose Deleted: g [16], [17], [18], [19], [20].Deleted: Similar patterns are observed in medical education, where disruptions to routines, reduced faceto-face interaction, academic difficulties, and emotional strain remained salient even as students reported attempts at adaptation.Deleted: Deleted: , are linked to greater resilience and well-being and to lower anxiety, stress, and depression. Another mechanism is coping. Céspedes-Carreño et al. [23] show that teachers' psychological well-being is associated not only with digital competencies and student-centered teaching, but also with adaptive coping and reduced maladaptive responses. Likewise, Oyarzún Gómez et al. [24] identify emotional competencies as an important resource for the psychological well-being of educational science professionals. The collection also broadens the analysis beyond immediate psychological variables. Inostroza et al. [25], Yang et al. [26], and Weinrabe et al. [27] emphasize how historical, psychosocial, sociocultural, digital, and neurocultural conditions-including the pandemic, generational shifts, social media, and intensified social competition-intersect in shaping student and youth well-being. Together, these studies deepen understanding of why some educational actors remain more vulnerable than others and how resilience may emerge through psychological, social, and contextual processes.A third contribution of this Research Topic is its recognition that post-pandemic mental health and well-being in education cannot be understood as exclusively individual matters. Several studies show that educational experiences are shaped by pedagogical and institutional conditions that can either buffer or intensify psychological strain. Kayalackakom et al. [21] show that structural educational barriers, difficulty balancing responsibilities, and the loss of face-to-face interaction appear as relevant contributors to well-being challenges in medical training. In higher education teaching, Céspedes-Carreño et al. [23] present digital competencies, pedagogical support, and coping-related resources not simply as individual assets, but as conditions linked to teaching quality and institutional capacity, a concern echoed by Jones and Bell [28] in their qualitative study of post-pandemic pressures affecting academic staff in UK higher education. A similar systemic lens is visible in Inostroza et al.'s [25] conceptual analysis, which argues that the university itself may function either as a protective environment or as a setting that exacerbates distress, depending on how it organizes teaching, assessment, support, and student interaction. At the same time, in Peru, Holguin-Alvarez et al. [29] show how care, violence, maternal responsibility, and education became entangled in pedagogical experiences developed outside conventional institutional settings. Read together, these studies reinforce the idea that long-term post-pandemic mental health in education is shaped by how institutions teach, support, organize, and respond, not only by the personal characteristics of students or teachers.The breadth of the collection is also evident in its attention to dimensions of postpandemic educational life that extend beyond conventional symptom-based approaches. In Romania, Hatos et al. [5] show through longitudinal evidence that the pandemic reshaped adolescents' future orientations, influencing career certainty, occupational aspirations, and intentions regarding educational and work mobility, suggesting that long-Deleted: as immersive educational experiences associated with flow are linked to greater resilience and well-being, and to lower anxiety, stress, and depression .Deleted: Another is coping, as psychological well-being among university faculty is associated not only with teaching-related resources but also with adaptive coping and reduced maladaptive responses Deleted: At the same time, emotional competencies also emerge as relevant to psychological well-being among educational Deleted: s..24].The collection also broadens the analysis of mechanisms beyond immediate psychological variables by emphasizing the convergence of historical, psychosocial, and sociocultural conditions in shaping student well-being, including the pandemic, generational shifts, social media, and intensified social competition [25], [26], [27]. TogetherDeleted: S Deleted: . Deleted: and coping-related resources are presented not simply as individual assets. Still, as conditions linked to Deleted: , Deleted: in qualitative evidence on post-pandemic pressures affecting academic staff in higher educatio.Deleted: the conceptual contributions, which argue Deleted: . Deleted: pedagogical experiences outside conventional institutional settings also reveal how care, violence, and educational responsibility became entangled during and after the pandem.Deleted: longitudinal evidence shows that the pandemic reshaped adolescents' future orientations term educational consequences also involve how young people imagine their trajectories beyond school. In Saudi Arabia, Alenezi et al. [10] demonstrate that adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies were unevenly distributed among children with and without special educational needs and disabilities, highlighting how vulnerability and adjustment during the pandemic were conditioned by developmental and educational differences from early stages onward. Likewise, in the Republic of Cyprus, Magorokosho et al. [16] show that the enduring impact of COVID-19 on university students cannot be reduced to immediate distress alone, but must also be understood in relation to resilience and its complex role in shaping mental health outcomes over time. In a multinational European study, Furmańska et al. [30] extend the discussion to help-seeking and support modalities by examining how the pandemic reshaped perceptions of online psychotherapy and the factors that mediate decisions to use it, thereby expanding the discussion of postpandemic educational well-being beyond symptoms alone and toward the conditions under which support is accessed. Taken together, these contributions broaden the scope of the Research Topic by showing that the long-term consequences of the pandemic in education are not only psychological, but also developmental, relational, and futureoriented.Finally, the collection is forward-looking in ways that speak directly to intervention and educational response. Across the included studies, the long-term consequences of the pandemic are accompanied by proposals for action that are psychological, pedagogical, and institutional. Peris-Ramos et al. [15] call for adapted mental health frameworks and personalized, multidimensional intervention strategies; Céspedes-Carreño et al. [23] emphasize the strengthening of adaptive coping resources and pedagogical and digital support for university faculty; Guerra-Tamez [17] points toward resilience-oriented educational designs that elicit deep engagement; and Inostroza et al. [25] highlight the need for institutional responses sensitive to historical, cultural, psychosocial, and generational change. In medical education, Kayalackakom et al. [21] recommend designing future hybrid and emergency-learning models that place student well-being and psychological resilience at the center. In our interpretation, the central implication of this collection is that post-pandemic mental health can no longer be treated as a temporary crisis response or as the responsibility of individuals alone. Educational systems must move beyond documenting harm toward developing supportive, flexible, and institutionally embedded responses to long-term mental health needs. Future research should prioritize longitudinal, comparative, and intervention-based designs capable of determining which psychological, pedagogical, and institutional strategies produce sustainable improvements in well-being across diverse populations and educational contexts.Deleted: . Deleted: research on children with and without special educational needs and disabilities further demonstrates that adaptive and maladaptive coping were unevenly distributed across groups, highlighting how vulnerability and adjustment during the pandemic were conditioned by developmental and educational differences from early stages onwar Deleted: [10]. Deleted: Collectively, these contributions suggest that the post-pandemic educational agenda must move beyond documenting harm and toward building educational environments that are more supportive, flexible, and responsive to long-term mental health needs. ¶