Long after teens returned to school, the isolation they endured during lockdown had ramifications we are just now seeing.
A teen sits on stairs feeling lonely. (Credit: Motortion/Getty Images)
This article, by high school student Chloe Kennedy, was produced out of News Decoder’s school partnership program. Chloe is a student at The Tatnall School in the United States, a News Decoder partner institution. Learn more about how News Decoder can work with your students.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought a change in all of our lives, yet little did we anticipate its long-lasting impacts, which continue to shape our present reality.
When Gabriel Pust was in high school, he had a hard time during the pandemic.
“I lost touch with a lot of friends and academic acquaintances because of the lockdown because I was home all the time,” said Pust, 19, who now attends Stevens Institute of Technology.
“When I did see friends we had to wear masks, and I found that it was harder to connect with them, due to the inability to recognize facial expressions.”
A study supported by the National Institute of Mental Health found that teen brains aged around three years during the 10-month-long pandemic. The study shows how the brains of adolescents are negatively affected when exposed to traumatic events like COVID-19.
Researchers collected data from MRI scans of adolescents ages 13–17 and observed how their brains developed over time, before and after the pandemic. The study reported more anxiety and depression in teens after the pandemic.
COVID-19 and mental health
Premature aging tends to occur in the brains of teenagers who have experienced traumatic instances. When premature aging happens expeditiously, it can correspond to anxiety, depression and addiction.
A decade-long survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a continuous decrease in students’ mental health. But in 2021 the data revealed shocking and different experiences after COVID-19.
The data showed that poorer mental health was more pronounced in females. The percentage of females who seriously considered attempting suicide, made a suicide plan or attempted suicide all increased in 2021.
This is a worldwide problem. According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic triggered a 25% increase in anxiety and depression; young people and women were more at risk of self-harming behavior and suicide.
Rebecca Whitesell, a school counselor at the Tatnall School, a college preparatory institution I attend in the U.S. state of Delaware, said you have to be careful about the data.
“Trends are noticing that it is more females, but I think there’s an aspect to that,” Whitesell said. “The data shows that girls are more susceptible to it, but I think there’s under-reporting for males.”
Gender and the pandemic
Underreporting might be occurring because male teens are less comfortable sharing their feelings. This is partially because society has created a negative stigma around men speaking up about their well-being and men often think it is a sign of weakness.
“COVID exacerbated whatever kids were going through before the pandemic,” Whitesell said. “What I have seen is worsening of anxiety, but also kids who have never experienced any mental health issues, then coming out of the pandemic with more instances of anxiety and depression.”
Human interaction can lessen these mental health problems.
Samiha Islam has been studying mental illnesses and the challenges that come with it as a graduate student in clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
“The first way isolation affected teenagers is by not having much social contact with friends, classmates or sports,” Islam said. “This social contact and support is really important for mental health, especially so for teenagers.”
Overcoming the loneliness of lockdown
It can help having structure in your life like a regular schedule, consistent meal times and scheduled activities. “In the absence of that, it hurts teenagers, and now teens tend to fill up their time using Tiktok and other social media, which can take a toll on mental health,” Islam said.
During the lockdown and isolation, teenagers turned their attention to TikTok and other social media platforms, that shorten attention spans and are designed to be addictive. This also contributed to poor mental health because teens frequently used social media during their free time.
Social media can negatively affect teen self-esteem. Teenagers compare themselves to what they see online, and can develop body dissatisfaction. Overusing social media has been linked to sleep problems and attention problems, as well as cyberbullying-related depression.
“During the pandemic, a lot of teenagers really took to social media, and they became a lot more active on it, just because they had more time,” Islam said. “And now you just see them scrolling all day.”
This was the case during the pandemic for Gabriel Pust. “I devoted less time to productive activities and more time to entertainment to keep me busy during the lockdown,” Pust said.
Islam said that there has to be a well-maintained balance between social media, social interaction and staying safe. You should be taking precautions to stay physically healthy, but you have to be mindful and remember it’s equally important to have a healthy mindset.
“Often there’s been this question of ‘What’s more important?’” Islam said. “Being physically isolated and protecting ourselves from the virus? Or is it more important to stay socially active and still have a life?”
Three questions to consider:
- What were some long term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic?
- Why did lockdown affect girls and boys differently?
- How did the COVID-19 lockdown affect you?
Chloe Kennedy is in her last year of high school at The Tatnall School in Wilmington, Delaware and plans to study Business at Rutgers University in the future.
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