Teen mental health hit hard by pandemic

Dylan Zemotel

JRN100 Staff Writer

With the closure of schools, restrictions on social interactions, and fear of getting infected, the covid-19 pandemic hit teens hard. The long-term impact that covid-19 brings to teens is fearful and needs to be addressed sooner than later. There are certain risks involved in teens mental and physical health that cannot be overlooked but rather addressed right away with a plan of action to solve the issue.

According to a recent study conducted by Teen Mental Health during Covid-19, 70% of teenagers reported experiencing negative stress due to the pandemic. The most common emotions were anxiety, sadness, and anger. These emotions can have serious consequences if not addressed, such as depression (which was said to increase by 19%), substance abuse, and even suicide. Which in some very sad cases ended up being the result.

Dr. John Smith, a psychologist and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said teens are especially vulnerable to the impact of the hard-hitting pandemic.

"Teens are going through a crucial stage of their lives where they are trying to establish their identity and gain independence. The pandemic has disrupted their social interactions, which can have a significant impact on their mental health." Smith said. 

The pandemic caused teens to miss out on a wide variety of activities that would have been going on while our country was in a shutdown. Teens missed out on school, sporting events, proms, club activities, and much more. Being in school five of seven days a week you see many different faces and interact with many different people. Going from that to having to stay inside all day everyday can have a negative effect.

The closure of schools and the switch to online learning created a lost sense of routine and lost sense of structure for teens.

"Schools provide structure and routine for teenagers, which can be beneficial for their mental health. With the closure of schools, teens have lost that structure, which can lead to feelings of anxiety and uncertainty." Smith said.

To address these concerns Smith has several ideas for interventions. Dr. Smith said parents and care givers can be there for teens by encouraging them to find coping strategies that work for them, and to allow them to talk and speak about what is on their minds.

"It's important to validate their feelings and offer a listening ear," he said.

Schools can also play a role in supporting the mental health of teenagers. Especially in this post pandemic era were students who went through the shutdown are back in school now. Dr. Smith said, schools should provide virtual mental health services to students, and connect them with other sources.

"Schools can offer virtual counseling sessions and provide resources for students to access mental health services," he said. 

Being able to have the technology we have today can be seen as a bad thing but here it provides a good recourse for teens who might be struggling to be able to have a conversation with someone who can give them healthy and thorough solutions to their problems.

Although virtual meetings are still options with students and teens being back in school now, in person meetings are an option and could be better for teens. Having face-to-face interactions can really allow students to open about their real feelings and share their emotions with a real physical person in their presence as opposed to being on an electronic device.

Recent high school graduate Jack O’Keefe was a junior in high school when Covvid-19 shut down his high school for the year. O’Keefe and his friends were sitting in class when the announcement was made and at first, they were excited, but later they found out they did not have much to be excited about

“It really all happened in the blink of an eye” O’Keefe said, “One second we were in school, and our principal told us over the intercom that we were going to have a two-week break. The next I was walking up to the stage for graduation.” 

O’Keefe described what the year looked like for him in school from March 2020 of his junior year until May 2021 of his senior year.

“At first we had no work at all for about a month. After that we started getting online work for about a month and then that school year was done. That summer was very long, it lasted like four months. That summer was fun especially because that’s when I started to be able to see my friends again. After 2020 summer we started school in mid-September were half the school went in two days and the other half went in the other two with Fridays off. Then midway through was half zoom, half in person. And the last month was fully in person, with graduation to cap it off.” O’Keefe said.

O’Keefe and the rest of his classmates did end up having a graduation in person unlike most students from the 2021 high school class, but they did not have a prom and other activities such as sports.

“We missed out on junior prom, senior prom and all other senior activities. I also didn’t get to play baseball my junior year because the season was cancelled. So, I actually ended up retiring from baseball that year” O’Keefe said.

O’Keefe missed out on things an everyday high schooler just expects, and although schools did try to make it better for their students trying to come up with alternate solutions and substitutions for big events that were missed, there wasn’t much the schools could do.

“They were not the same. It kind of felt like they were putting something together as a way of saying sorry to us.” O’Keefe said.

The hope is for the students who were affected most as teens can gain back some sense of normalcy so they can carry on in life and use the pandemic as a learning opportunity for future events