O impacto do isolamento social e os reflexos do retorno presencial na saúde mental dos discentes do Instituto Federal do Piauí Campus Pedro II: contextos da pandemia

Abstract

Covid, the disease caused by the New Coronavirus, is a highly transmissible respiratory infection that can progress from mild to severe cases, including fatalities, declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). Due to the disease, preventive and control sanitary measures such as social isolation became required. Consequently, various sectors experienced effects on their operational structures, including education. Face-to-face classes shifted to remote learning, resulting in psychological impacts on students during the pandemic, persisting upon the return to face-to-face activities, which exacerbated the mental health of students. Thus, a study on the topic was necessary to contribute to the discussion regarding the mental health of students in Technical and Professional Education (TPE). Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the impact of the return to face-to-face activities at the Federal Institute of Piauí, Pedro II Campus, on the mental health of 2nd-year students in Integrated High School Education (EMI). This field research is qualitative in nature, descriptive and explanatory, conducted through semi-structured interviews, involving ten students from the courses: Environment, Administration, and Informatics within the scope of TPE. The study took place within the scope of the Professional and Technological Education Postgraduate Program (PROFEPT), specifically in the concentration area of Teaching and in the Research Line of Educational Practices in Technical and Professional Education. Based on data analysis technique grounded on Bardin's model (1977), the results were categorized as follows: emotional challenges of the pandemic, experiences of social isolation, and contemporaneity in face-to-face school experience. The results indicated, among other findings, that the period of social isolation indeed exacerbated the mental suffering of the respondents, that the return to face-to-face activities posed an adaptive challenge to these students, and that dysfunctional practices such as self-harm were adopted or intensified as a mechanism for emotional relief. The educational product developed from this research was entitled "Encounter Groups: Sharing Feelings, Reflecting Possibilities" and consisted of meeting moments, conversation circles, on what participants could report, by means of testimonies and lived experiences, their feelings and emotions that affected mental health during the pandemic. Through open and constructive dialogue, they had the freedom to express their feelings, emotions, and thoughts and share anxieties from the period experienced.