Reports show improvement in young people's mental health during the coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to lockdowns and other measures around the world, causing many people to
Teens in Quarantine: Mental Health, Screen Time, and Family Connection
(PDF file) https://ifstudies.org/ifs-admin/resources/final-teenquarantine2020.pdf
How Teens Handled Quarantine - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/10/how-teens-handled-quarantine/616695/
Why COVID-19 quarantine helped teen mental health, though adults struggled more - Deseret News
https://www.deseret.com/indepth/2020/10/13/21513309/covid-19-quarantine-teens-mental-health-jean-twenge-depression-loneliness-byu-family-studies
The pandemic and the associated lockdowns and other measures have had a major impact on daily life, restricting people's contact with close friends and long-distance travel, while businesses such as restaurants have suffered significant economic losses. Adults are not the only ones affected; students are also facing many changes, with classes moving remotely and people no longer able to meet with friends.
A research team from Brigham Young University , San Diego State University , and the Institute for Family Studies in the United States conducted a survey of 1,523 teenagers living in the United States to find out how teenagers responded during the pandemic.
The research team conducted a survey of teenagers between May and July 2020, covering topics such as mental health, time spent with family, sleep habits, technology use, and views on anti-racism protests. Mental health was assessed using four scales: dissatisfaction with life, unhappiness, depression, and loneliness.
When the results of this survey were compared with those of a 2018 survey on teenagers' mental health, it was found that 'teenagers' mental health has not worsened during the pandemic, and in some respects has improved.'
This graph shows the results of a 2018 survey on mental health, as well as the results of surveys conducted during the school and summer vacation periods during the pandemic. We can see that 'loneliness,' shown by the black line, and 'depression,' shown by the black dashed line, have decreased significantly during the pandemic compared to 2018. On the other hand, 'dissatisfaction with life,' shown by the yellow line, and 'unhappiness,' shown by the yellow dashed line, have not changed much during the pandemic compared to 2018.
Jean Twenge , a psychologist at San Diego State University who led the study, said that because teenagers' mental health has been rapidly deteriorating over the past five to six years, she expected that the pandemic could further worsen their mental health. The research team speculates that the relatively positive changes in teenagers' mental health despite the pandemic may be due to 'changes in lifestyle caused by the pandemic.'
The first reason cited by the research team is 'changes in sleep habits.' In a 2018 survey, 55% of teenagers answered that they 'usually slept seven hours or more.' However, in a survey conducted during the pandemic, a whopping 84% of teenagers answered that they slept seven hours or more. The reason for this is thought to be that schools switched to online classes during the pandemic, allowing students to sleep later to make up for the time it took to commute to school in the morning.
In addition, the fact that many workers worked from home during the pandemic allowed teenagers to spend more time with their families also appears to have mitigated the negative impact of the pandemic: 56% of teenagers said they talked more with their parents during the pandemic, 54% said their family ate dinner together more often, and 46% said they spent more time with their siblings.
Perhaps the most striking finding, the researchers noted, was that 68% of teenagers reported that their families had become closer during the pandemic. Among teenagers who reported that their families had become closer during the pandemic, only 15% reported experiencing a decline in their mental health, compared with 27% of teenagers who did not report that their families had become closer.
'There's a general perception that teenagers don't want to spend time with their parents, and yes, friendships are important, but they do want closeness with their parents,' Twenge said. 'In some ways, this realization has been one of the few blessings of the pandemic.'
Aside from mental health, the research team also looked at teenagers' technology use during the pandemic. While it was expected that social media use would increase dramatically during the pandemic due to not being able to meet with friends, social media use actually decreased compared to 2018.
While time spent on texting, social media, and gaming decreased, teenagers spent more time video chatting with friends and watching videos and movies. Twenge speculates that negative social media use may have decreased during the pandemic, potentially contributing to a decline in cyberbullying rates.
In addition, 53% of teenagers in this survey answered that they felt that their experience with the pandemic had made them stronger and more resilient. This shows that teenagers who experienced the unique situation of the pandemic felt that they had grown as individuals.
Of course, teenagers also reported feeling the negative effects of the pandemic. 29% of respondents said they knew someone who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 27% said their parents had lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Many teenagers were also worried about daily food and household finances. Teenagers with these concerns reportedly experienced a greater decline in their mental health than those without these concerns. While the pandemic has generally shown an improvement in teenagers' mental health, the research team argued that efforts to support teenagers remain crucial.
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