Teens' anxiety levels dropped during pandemic, study finds

[Dohorseseatapples]

Having witnessed the state of teenager’s MH decline over the last 20 years in schools, it’s an interesting view point.

My first thought was ‘No shit Sherlock’.
AIBU to agree with this report?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53884401

Survey:

sphr.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Young-Peoples-Mental-Health-during-the-COVID-19-Pandemic-Report.pdf

For my daughter the only thing that makes it stressful is the constant strive to get top marks she puts on herself. She loved school - has just done A levels and has just left.

I know a huge number of teenagers who have really struggled with lockdown. Personally I’m actually surprised by this survey because, although some of my students have done better throughout lockdown, more have suffered than improved.
Maybe it’s the type of students I teach. Maybe it’s that they’re not able to reach their own MH professionals and have therefore been contacting me directly.

Mine are year 9. Going into year 10. It's the opposite here - they are happier and mentally healthier at school.

I'm amazed that its come as a surprise to them. I gladly left my high school experience behind. My son has absolutely been in his element during the pandemic. I wouldn't say he suffered at school, worked hard and has friends but its clear that the constant pressure both academically and socially was not good for him. He's been so much more at ease since March and although I'm desperate for him to be back at school from an academic perspective I feel sad that his carefree and stress free time is almost over.

@MarshaBradyo yes two of them. Although I would rather 2020 hadn't turned out this way, having a term of learning from home has been good for my kids. Their self-study skills have improved and they have a whole new appreciation of what school actually offers them. Equally they now get that education is something you can help yourself to, and you dont need a classroom for all of it.

Likewise most of the younger kids in the neighbourhood have had a term of doing very little formal learning but loads of playing outside and honestly, I think the overall effect on their academic attainment will be minimal.

Not my teen! She has absolutely hated this year. She enjoys school, loves her friends, all her hobbies and interests have been put on hold. Can't wait til life gets back to normal! She has been far better since rules were relaxed and she can see friends again. I was extremely worried about her mental health during lockdown. I have never seen her so low.

My teen is not a stressful type but he was far happier being able to wake up naturally. He usually had to be up really early for a lift or train commute to sixth form.

I know some people flourish after school because a school environment doesn’t suit them. But some of this must b down to the personalities the teens have that did or did not struggle.

Lockdown has been easier on the introverts like me. Was talking to a friend on phone yesterday and she loves WFH and is dreading going back, another mate has been told he will WFH till the start of 2021.I appreciate these people have jobs that are possible to do at home. These two have personality types like me. My other friend who is very outgoing has withered on the vine and really struggles not being around people. I suppose she is an extrovert.

I hated school and found it horrendously stressful back in the 1960s and 1970s

• no social media then ! - whereas some kids liked it

School was far more stressful than any job I've ever done - and of course I could always change jobs

School is fine if you are that round peg fitting into the round holes.
If you are a square peg, then school keeps hammering your edges

I was just half joking to someone yesterday that I thought teenagers who actually wanted to go back to school must be few and far between. I hated secondary school, and it was nothing to do with the work! In fact, I would have got on a lot better if I could have worked from home and not had the added stress of all those wankers I went to school with making my life a misery. I've always said that if my dcs don't like secondary school, I will take them out without hesitation and let them work from home with online tutors and try to get into a homeschooling network locally.

I seriously question the benefit of physically being in school for all students. It may be of benefit to some, but certainly not all. Grown adults who aren't teachers, if you suggest them going to work in a school often look horrified at the thought. So why would I blindly insist my child had to go to one? I know it's where some people learn to interact with their peers, but by the time people reach adulthood, they are usually not bad tempered thugs like they were in my school - and mine was an all girls' grammar school in a fancy area! So, usually, no need to learn how to interact with bad tempered, (in fairness, probably suffering with poor mental health, in part as a result of the horrible atmosphere in schools), people all day, five days a week. Unless they want to be police officers...in which case they won't be learning how to treat volatile people as peers.

That said, I hope my dcs love school, in which case, they will go of course.

Porcupine fair enough, dc will differ.

My yr5 has been stretched educationally still using a different year on Oak Academy but yr10 complex maths on screen has been a poor substitute for being taught in class.

Yr10 a new person when returning last term. So much happier and more motivated, it was immediate. He’s sociable and needs that too (although has been seeing his friends a lot lately anyway)..

He doesn’t do Instagram or care about keeping up that way maybe lowers his anxiety levels.

As a psychologist working with autistic students we saw in many cases an immediate improvement in mental health when lockdown came. However as the months have gone by this has mutated into a retreat into narrowing comfort zones to the extent that we worry about how to get those kids back in, and their improved mental health as stress reduced has turned into melancholy and isolation.

My 13 year old dd has autism and since school finished she hasn't had a single meltdown or stress episode and has stopped biting her nails. She's happy and chatty in a way she isn't usually. I'd home ed if she'd agree to it as I did with my first child but she wants to stay in school so I respect that.

From the survey :

"The lockdown sample had lower proportions of Black,
Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students, students receiving free school meals and students
with a long-term illness or disability, lower levels of T1 anxiety and slightly higher T1 school
connectedness compared to non-responders" (compared with pre-lockdown baseline)

This is a pretty important caveat IMHO.

But all the parents in the GCSE thread say their children have been through "absolute hell" sleeping in till noon every day and doing little or no work for four months.

When I never left the house for a year (other than the supermarket at 1 am every few weeks as it was before food deliveries), and didn't talk to anyone at all, my anxiety levels were extremely low.

I don't think anyone would have suggested that was a positive for me, it's not a simple situation, that lower anxiety equals better mental health, there are long and short term effects to everything.

Take if two halves for us - one twin, very organised and motivated, frustrated with time wasting and poor teaching has been happy to work on herself and has continued to arrange meet ups with friends - she much prefers being away from the stupid crap that school insists on.
Ds - needs the structure of school to encourage him to stay focused and remain on task and not so well organised socially and is missing the daily interaction.
The whole one size fits all is the problem, it doesn’t and unfortunately even though the Gov like to bleat on about choice - the schools around here have an almost identical ethos - old fashioned and conservative - their attitude to change has always been sloth like - a source of pride from the HT - but it has also meant they failed to adapt during lockdown and their distanced provision of education was shameful.

Can I ask those with secondary school children - what is it that makes them such stressful places to be?

Imagine being on a busy tube, railway station. The noise, hustle, bustle, fast pace...
Shoving, pushing. Many school buses, playgrounds and corridors are like this.

Then, in between movement time, imagine being in 5 one hour meetings, one straight after another.
Intense concentration, listening to presentations, completing work.

Real ‘downtime’ doesn’t exist.

Repeat from leaving home to returning home between the hours of 8 and 4pm 5 days a week.

Return home and more work to be done. (HW)

Add into that puberty, insecurities, normal day to day stresses and worries, friendships, clubs...

It’s a lot to deal with.

I seriously question the benefit of physically being in school for all students. It may be of benefit to some, but certainly not all.

Me too.

Like others said, though, this study was done only a few weeks after lockdown, at a time when a lot students also weren't being pushed to do much work from home, and felt a long way from final results.

It also doesn't really talk about learning - judging by the teenagers who practically live on the field at the end of our street, plenty of them are spending many days a week hanging out with friends smoking weed and presumably not getting a lot of home learning done - and in the short term I'd find that nice and relaxed too.

I also found secondary school unpleasant and would have preferred not to be there, plus have an eldest with ASD who struggles hugely, so do sympathise and think we need to look into this further, but don't think this study gives helpful results.

I was about to say "really"? as my 16 year old and his friends are more stressed than usual, not less.

But the report is only about 13-14 year olds.

I think older teens will have suffered more - worry about exams; at an age where they typically need support of friends, but not able to see them; bored by 6 months of nothingness ...

Most likely- teens are all individuals. Most likely- as others have pointed out, circumstances play a large part: individual circumstances, but also obvious aspects as when study was carried out, age and self-selection of respondents.

It is also possibly to suffer and benefit at the same time. My dd, who is in HE, suffered from the lack of physical closeness but at the same time (being medically vulnerable) was terrified that they would be forced back at a time or in a manner that meant she would either have to risk her life or drop out. Not impossible that some teens may be feeling similar. Also possible to hate school and worry about your future at the same time.

Not my teen.first few wks werent too bad but as my son was in yr 8 and attends a school where he had full days lessons everyday through laptop it started to have a terrible effect. Outcome by end july awful and i now have a son who has transformed from a confident able teenager into a son with crippling social anxiety,finds it hard to go out,isolates himself for hours and cannot wait to go back to physical school again. He has had many violent rages and outbursts and it has affected us all terribly including younger brother. I would like to see another survey from the end of lockdown.

I wonder how much of it has to do with teens need for sleep and boredom?

Because teens have a definitively higher need for sleep, and in spite of what some seem to prioritise, boredom is developmentally beneficial for teens (I had a very developmentally beneficial childhood ).

So being able to get up later and being a little bored probably increased sleep and reduced stress a bit.

Part of it will also be that many adults have been at home rather than at work. We have only heard about the problems of kids trapped at home with abusive or neglectful parents.

But most parents aren’t abusive or neglectful, and kids benefit from having parents at home more.

My SIL has found this with my nephew. He is like a different person because he has the security of both parents being at home all day and constantly there for him.