[ad_1]
- With the resurgence of the coronavirus in Europe and the United States, parents are worried about the well-being and mental health of their children.
- UK NIHR report gives hope; he revealed that students’ mental health improves during distance learning.
- Parents will continue to play an important role in supporting the mental health of their children.
As coronavirus cases reappear, European states have begun the second round of business closures and closures. Across the Atlantic, 10 million people have been infected in the United States and rates of new infections continue to climb as the country waits to see how leaders react after a controversial election.
This leaves children and adolescents with a lot of bitterness. During this period of life they develop the knowledge and social skills that will serve them in their future pursuits, but the pandemic has either stripped them of these critical connections or diluted the power of these interactions through hazy blue light. from a computer. monitor. Add to that the mental stressors of massive upheaval and unknowns, and it’s no wonder parents, teachers, and community leaders worry about young people.
But according to a survey by the National Institute for Health Research, children are doing well. By some metrics, they’ve done better in our age of lockdown and distance education.
Shining under pressure
The UK has shown a reduction in at-risk depression scores during the pandemic lockdown.
Credit: NIHR
The report ‘Youth mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic’ surveyed over 1,000 grade 9 students (aged 13-14) in the UK. This ongoing study aims to chronicle the relationship between social media use and adolescent mental health. Because study participants responded to the initial survey in October 2019, researchers were able to compare students’ prepandemic baseline with their responses several months after the lockdown. (Schools closed in the UK in mid-March; follow-up surveys were carried out in April and May.)
The researchers found that the mental health of British adolescents had surprisingly improved during these difficult times. Although 90% of the students agreed that COVID-19 is a serious problem, their responses indicated an overall decrease in their risk for anxiety, an increase in their well-being, and no major change in their risk for depression.
The greatest improvement was seen among students with poor mental health. Students with low well-being scores in October of last year showed a 10 point gain on the Warwick-Edinburgh well-being scale; Meanwhile, students with previously average to high well-being scores showed no significant change. Students at risk for anxiety and depression also showed slight advances in their scores on the Anxiety and Depression Scale at the hospital. The only group at increased risk of depression were girls, and the difference was slight.
What caused this mental uplift in British youth? Although the study does not attempt to answer this question, the researchers believe it may be “due to the elimination of stressors in the school environment, such as pressure from academic work and difficult relationships with peers, including bullying. ”
Another possibility is that the pandemic stressors in this cohort are more outward looking. They cited their top three concerns: worrying that their friends or family will catch the disease, worrying about the mental health of their friends and family, and worrying about not having enough school. Far fewer were worried about catching the disease or the effect of the foreclosure on friendships, job prospects, or the economy in general.
Maintain critical connections
The researchers also asked questions about students’ connections to school, peers, and family. Students reported an increased connection to school and no change in their relationships with friends and family. People with the lowest connectivity scores in the baseline survey again saw the greatest gains in well-being scores and reduced anxiety. And, of course, the use of social media has grown oversized.
The researchers write: “As schools fully reopen, it is important to consider ways to prevent anxiety from rising to pre-pandemic levels.”
The study has limitations, however, and we must be careful not to extrapolate this data too broadly. Young children, the researchers note, do not have the same level of social media access as their older peers, and their vital social interactions are not as easily digitized. The Playground cannot be translated to text and emojis with the same fidelity as the Dining Room block. As a result, young children can experience a very different pandemic. This may also be true for young people who are going through periods of transition in their lives.
Researchers also did not see the same improvements in vulnerable student populations, such as LGBTQ teens and people with disabilities. These students reported higher anxiety and depression scores before the pandemic and did not see the same improvements in the pandemic follow-up survey. This result suggested to the researchers that these students continued to experience stressors even when they were not physically attending school.
Finally, there is no indication that adolescents from other countries will be faced with the pandemic in the same way. In countries with weaker social safety nets, like the United States, students may be much more worried about the impact of the virus on their health and their future prospects.
Love in the time of COVID
The National Institute for Health Research report showing that young adolescents are more resilient than adults can give them credit for, but it bases its findings on student responses just months after the start of the pandemic. Sadly, we won’t know how distance education and extended outages will affect them until they’ve been experienced. This reality means that parents still play a vital role in supporting their children’s mental health.
Parents looking for strategies can find resources at the Centers for Disease Control, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, and other institute of health websites. In general, experts recommend keeping teens in a routine that promotes learning, exercise, and social connections. This timeline should get them to achieve their goals, take part in their interests, and engage in social activities, even though these social commitments need to be made online.
Yes, screen time will increase, but parents should remember that not all screen times are created equal. There’s a difference between screen time spent, for example, playing board games with friends and mindlessly wandering through social media junk. Parents will still need to build in boundaries and talk to teens regularly about the information they receive about the coronavirus and the pandemic.
As Nilu Rahman, senior child life specialist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, said: “Teens have great internet access and some of what they read about the coronavirus and the pandemic could scare them away. , even if they don’t say so. “Rahman added that” parents should make sure that children do not descend into rabbit burrows and become confused or scared by false information. “
Parents should also remain alert to behavior changes, as these can signal increased stress or other underlying mental health issues. Rahman recommends that parents watch out for extreme eating habits, changes in sleep patterns, signs of self-harm, increased isolation, or their children not enjoying their favorite hobbies and hobbies.
“Parents know their children best,” she says, “so if something is wrong with their teenager, they should trust their instincts and find out what’s going on, especially if the child has a history of depression or anxiety.
From articles on your site
Related articles on the web
[ad_2]
Source link