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

Teens aren't a homogenous group though are they? Some will have had their anxiety rocket, some will have been more relaxed. Some will have enjoyed lockdown, some won't.

So many factors at play as to how their experience of school is and likewise, their experience of home.

The study said that depression was reduced as well.

Why is this being released now when it was done in May? It’s not very useful to assess prolonged effect.

I'm convinced in years to come there will be reports on how the break did teens a world of good. Mine are much more relaxed and enjoying not being at school. As I would have been. There is far too much pressure on kids these days.

We're all happier, more relaxed, less stressed during times we don't have to get up at a certain time, deal with people we'd rather not and have more time to ourselves though.

Sadly this isn't what's expected of you when you enter the real world.

There are some children for whom school is the only place where anyone gives two hoots about their well-being and achievements too, children who have parents who don't supply them with what's needed physically or mentally to achieve what they're capable of.

@Bloomburger

There are some children for whom school is the only place where anyone gives two hoots about their well-being and achievements too, children who have parents who don't supply them with what's needed physically or mentally to achieve what they're capable of.

Unfortunately disadvantaged children are less likely to be sent to school so double whammy.

We're all happier, more relaxed, less stressed during times we don't have to get up at a certain time, deal with people we'd rather not and have more time to ourselves though.*

Sadly this isn't what's expected of you when you enter the real world.

In the real world, we tend to choose a job that is suited to our capabilities and find ourselves in consequence surrounded by people who are not wildly different from ourselves. If a job is really horrible or bad for our mental health, we can walk. If we perform badly at work we'll get sacked, but it won't mean our families being threatened with fines or prison.

I'd say the thing that had the worst impact on my disabled dd's MH was the chorus of teaching staff repeating that if you're struggling here you will never cope in secondary/HE/a job. Dd has since worked at the same ft job for 2 years, at pt job job for 1 and been a student for 3- nothing has EVER been more difficult or less adapted to her needs than her junior school. All the scare-mongering was totally unnecessary.

Other than that, totally get your point about school being the only safe space for some pupils.

@Dohorseseatapples

For some teens / dc it is schools closing at the heart of it.

Everything closed down for months.
Shops, places of work, restaurants, cinemas, clubs, theatres, cafes, leisure centres, travel industry... the list goes on.

But schools closing caused the stress and anxiety.

Yeh ok then!

School closing also means

• no school clubs (1 DC actively involved in PA at school taking up considerable after school time - all cancelled)
• no "hanging out" with friends after school - if you have to organise it and/or rely on parents for lifts this doesn't happen or at any rate happens much less frequently
• no travelling to/from school - for my DC the walk to school was necessary exercise and a chance to see others they don't normally
• sense of routine. Particularly for Y11 DC (who had no school work) there was no requirement to do anything and he's basically drifted aimlessly

I can completely understand why.

I suffer from anxiety and have been the best I've been in years since Lockdown.

My home is my safe space.

What we need, in other words, is a nuanced approach that takes into account different scenarios: children who absolutely need to get to school for the sake of their mental and physical wellbeing and medically vulnerable children (or children with vulnerable families) who need to be safe without feeling that their education is abandoned by their school.

DS1 (14, diagnosed with ADHD and Dyspraxia) doesn't get massively over stressed about school compared to most teens - or so I thought. During lockdown, he's gone from getting grade 6s in most subjects to getting grade 8s and 9s, he has been given too many commendations to list for his work, been put forward for a speech day prize and generally seems so much more relaxed. He's loved having the time to properly research subjects before writing about them, instead of cramming it into a 50 min long lesson or an hour's homework before they move onto the next topic. He has missed his friends, but stayed in contact via Discord/Zoom.

Unfortunately, I don't see being able to attend lessons in just your undies, from bed, becoming a permanent 'reasonable adjustment' for him. But it made me aware that I need to speak with school about how the usual school arrangements are hindering him learning, not helping.

I’m going to hold my hands up and say I’m not in the ‘no shit Sherlock’ camp - I was really surprised by the study. I had assumed that being stuck at home with parents and not being able to see friends would be terrible for teens’ mental health. But I can see I was making that assumption on the basis of my own experience of being a teen in the early noughties, and from the point of view of someone whose home life was unhappy and whose school life was happy.

That said though, I don’t know whether being less anxious is necessarily a good thing. If you suddenly remove all the stresses and pressure of normal everyday life from someone, of course they’re going to be less anxious. But if that’s a totally unnatural situation for them to be in - because life has natural stresses and pressure, it just does - is that good for them? Mightn’t it weaken their resilience long term?

I had assumed that being stuck at home with parents and not being able to see friends would be terrible for teens’ mental health

I've yet to find any publication of the report. But the dataset in October was available because the schools are part of an intervention study to see if reducing anxiety in pupils is good for teachers - www.bristol.ac.uk/population-health-sciences/projects/wise/ - and presumably that intervention had already begun, since that was the point of it.

How do we know the improvement wasn't due to the intervention (which the pilot study suggested was beneficial)?

School closing also means
- no school clubs (1 DC actively involved in PA at school taking up considerable after school time - all cancelled)
- no "hanging out" with friends after school - if you have to organise it and/or rely on parents for lifts this doesn't happen or at any rate happens much less frequently
- no travelling to/from school - for my DC the walk to school was necessary exercise and a chance to see others they don't normally
- sense of routine. Particularly for Y11 DC (who had no school work) there was no requirement to do anything and he's basically drifted aimlessly

Schools won't be back to normal in September but I get your point.
All the things you mention above are (were) a PART of normal life.

sirfred
I've yet to find any publication of the report.
It's linked up-thread.

Mightn’t it weaken their resilience long term?

I see that differently, our children lack resilience now, they lack creativity and independence, they lack self awareness,they lack interest based on a love of learning, the curriculum from 5 years old is constrained.
In Early Years resilience is developed, a can do attitude, a try, fail and bounce back ( Characteristics of Effective Learning) but that is lost through school.

Mental health issues have rocketed in the UK overtime, nothing to do with the pandemic.

During the pandemic, time without the rigid structure of school has developed resilience. Time to be independent, to manage change, to be interested and find out what you like as a child/teen. Time to learn new skills, to be motivated because you have chosen to learn. Time to play outdoors, developing street games or free play, created perhaps out of boredom, time to assess your own risks and think accordingly. Time from prescribed lessons and clubs both in and out of school.

The pandemic may have offered an opportunity for children to actually develop much needed resilience which supports good mental health.

This isn't much of a surprise despite it going against other studies on the same subject. The media would have you believe being away from school was damaging the mental well being of every child in the country. Although I think the sample in this study was made up of y9 children who haven't started GCSE or A Levels yet.

Our secondary school ages DC have been happy enough too. They have really come on in lockdown and taken on vast amounts of cooking chores. They are far more practically rounded (and we'll slept) than they were six months ago. I'd love to be a psychologist studying the effects of lockdown.

@BirthdayCakes

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

I assume its a combination of factors but some things must have changed in the past 20/30 years - is it social media, are other children more horrible, more pressure?

My sons say toilets that they won't use because they are filthy by lunch time, he waits until he comes home.

Amount of homework, over the holidays they had 50 hours of triple science, maths and English homework to do.

Ds1: Teachers who think he's not listening and always pick him to repeat what they have said and then get annoyed when he can do it verbatim. He has a listening face which makes it look like he isn't, I've made that mistake at home.

Ds2: being told he's not read what they were supposed to read in class when he has. He's got a photographic memory and only really looks at the page for a short time. I took him to a museum he wanted to go to a couple of years ago, my Dad told him off for not having read the information boards, he spent the hour home telling him what they had said in far more detail than either Dad or I could remember

While I'm struggling with the lockdown now I'd have loved it as a 13 year old. Schools can be very toxic environments.

This is a survey of the very bottom end of teenagers though - 13-14 years old. I suspect that they would have a very different result if they were looking at 16-19 year olds most of the ones I know in that age group are in a pretty terrible state.

I'm sure some teens suffered over the lockdown, but my son has been as happy as a clam since March. No class bullies tormenting him. No teachers dragging down his self-esteem because of their unwillingness to accommodate his special needs. No worries about going through awkward puberty stages with an audience in his large secondary school.

I suspect that they would have a very different result if they were looking at 16-19 year olds most of the ones I know in that age group are in a pretty terrible state

But why are they in such a state? Is this to do with their resilience, their underdeveloped independence, creativity and motivation?

More likely because they have had their entire world turned on its head and their youth means they won't have the same perspective on it as older adults.