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

To be fair even adults struggle with endless zoom all day and that is mere talking not active learning.

Too much screen learning isn’t great.

Even my dd who is in year 11 and had a lot of worries about the exams and missing her friends said she felt so much less stressed. She has stopped biting her nails and her digestion has improved.
Really I hope researchers take this further I have been concerned about the amount of stress we are piling on our kids and the resulting mental health issues.

I'm not surprised either but I don't think it's completely all down to no school - after all the whole GCSE/A level/Higher grade debacle must have caused a great deal of anxiety though that obviously didn't affect Y9s. It sounds stupid, but just letting teens have more sleep is probably doing wonders for their wellbeing and if you are well rested you will be less anxious.

letting teens have more sleep is probably doing wonders for their wellbeing and if you are well rested you will be less anxious

I thought my days of checking the children were breathing cos they’d slept in were long gone

Nope

I loathed school , so I know I would have been ok but my mum would have hated it and I probably would not have had the discipline to do any work from home so been even further behind ( and I was a very average pupil and struggled with maths and science) in the 70s and 80s there wasn't any internet , so it probably would never have happened anyway!
I can see why some teens have been fine but it can't be forever even if school isn't for everyone and isn't perfect. Schools need to return , but a few parents might want to home school smaller children I bet!
Be interesting to see how they adapt to the new rules. I bet many just won't want to go back after all this time away. I would have felt the same to be fair.

Dd2 definitely happier at home. She was school refusing before Lockdown and were trying to get medical grounds tuition but monumentally ket down by CAMHS again.
Whenever I mention school she shuts down completely . Starting to think I need to derigister her and spend a fortune on online schooling or therapy or both.
All this school is kids safe space etc etc can fuck right off as it isn't always.

I think primary and secondary schools are so different. You have about a dozen different teachers at secondary with little time for pastoral care and any individual teacher noticing if something is wrong.

I hated school too as a teen due to the bitchy snake pit school is sometimes, but also love learning and wluld have wanted some form of home ed, but wouldn't have got that from my parents during lockdown. I would have been bored and worried about my future.

Schools just need to deal with bullying properly. If it isn't dealt with in school, you just end up having to deal with these arseholes when you leave too, since nobody has held them to account. Exam anxiety needs to go too and maybe assessing ability in a way which makes people less anxious would help, since exams tend to only really happen in education. I loved exams, but know loads of people who felt their marks would have been a better reflection of their ability if they were assessed in a different way.

I'm.so glad I'm not a teen now. The world seemed much more innocent back in my teenage years (90's), even though I was far from it!

My yr9 dd is bored and wants to go back but she does find all the drama around friendships and social side hard work at times. She hasn’t missed that part.

Watching her, it’s been nice to see her develop her own style of hair and clothes rather than the pressure from peers and to find that she enjoys skateboarding and have the time to practise her skills. She is worried about missing so much of maths which is a subject she struggles with as she said she found it hard to work from home and learn with that subject. She did every bit of work the school set through lockdown.

My 11year old going into Y7 doesn’t want to go back at all. She has loved working on her art for months and is dreading having school and homework again.

Sec School (a crap comp) ruined my teen tears and left with me with issues I still have today, 40 years later.

I was bullied mercilessly throughout, not just verbal but physical too including being hit, spat on, burned with fag ends and having property damaged & stolen (bag, books, etc).

Always the same response when I reported it to parents & staff - basically that I should learn to fight back (nice bit of victim blaming there!)

Teachers were completely useless. I told them who the bullies were and what they did, but they were "popular" i.e. in school sports teams, in school plays, etc so were friendly with teachers outside the classroom. Some were alphabetically next to me so in classes/groups sorted by name, I was always in "their group" so couldn't get away from them in lessons.

I'd literally hide at breaks & lunchtime so they couldn't find me (under stage in school hall was my favourite).

This was 40 years ago, so some schools have been toxic places for some people for decades, it's certainly not just recent with the advent of SM - that just changes the nature of the bullying.

Schools just need to deal with bullying properly

Indeed they do. Teachers need to wake up to it and stop pretending it doesn't exist or blaming the victim.

The other victim blaming you get is the "can't you just try to get on with people"

11yo primary school DD's tinnitus has stopped. It always seemed to be school stress linked.

birthday secondary school was grim 30 years ago tbh. Bullying, peer pressure and not fitting in has probably always been a thing.

My 13 year old ds has really struggled with lockdown and has shown anxiety, emotional outbursts and now general lack of motivation and is not interested in anything. He was desperate to get back to school and for a pre covid life but is now very anxious about it. He is also showing signs of obsessive handwashing and being withdrawn socially.

This is extremely interesting and reinforces my interest in homeschooling when my DS is older. He's just 7 now and I know he'd get a much better academic education at home with me. However as he's an only child and we don't live in an area where he can play out. So I send him to school for socialisation. (He does a lot of extracurricular activities but that's not the same as seeing the same group of friends each day.) But when he's a teen and able to manage his social life for himself, I plan on keeping a completely open mind to allowing him to homeschool if he chooses.

Interesting that some are stating their teens are glad to get away from the friendship drama at school.

The experience here (2 teens) is that the friendship drama has got worse when it's almost entirely had to be carried out via social media. Both DC (both normally very placid, easy going) have had major fall outs with friends, that I am 99% sure would have been over and forgotten about within a couple of days if they'd been seeing each other every day, rather than being exacerbated by constant long heart to hearts (yes, even the boy) at a distance.

The changes in scores are relatively small and the risk of depression in girls actually increased.

The main gainers were, unsurprisingly, those who were unhappy at school. Those happy at school showed no change or a slight decrease in well being.

It is also seen as axiomatic that less stress is better. However, most consider there to be a 'right' level of stress and I do think that many teens have been close to the 'rust out' zone of chilled plus bored.

Personally, I would read very little into this survey.

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.*

My DS does this too. I used to tell him off for not listening and he'd quote what I'd said word for word, farther back than I could recall! When he was little we had to keep reminding him that teachers don't know you're listening unless you try to look like you are.

After saying how much happier he's been for months, he told me last night he couldn't sleep as he's dreading going back to school. This is mostly due to him now going into Y10 and starting GCSEs. He knows just how much pressure he'll be under. And my nephew broke down at the weekend and confided to my sister that he was being physically bullied before lockdown. School checked old cctv and confirmed one horrible incident yesterday. He doesn't want to go back

My almost teen has been an antirely different child. She's always suffered from anxious feelings and loathes being in groups of more than a few people. Her mental health over lockdown has been much better. I'm gearing up for next year to be difficult though, with having to readjust to crowds and schools again. But then again, maybe she might have had time to emotionally heal and might continue with her new found calm! Here's hoping!

Parents who are experiencing their teen suffering during lock down. Spare a thought for the many teens and parent's of teens who suffer years sometimes 5+ plus years of anxiety and depression because of school. You are only dealing with 6 months or so of temporary disruption.

If anything it shows the actual resilience of those teen who have to battle it everyday for years, to get up every morning to face school and all the anxiety, depression, and sometimes bullying that school causing them.

They are the resilient. So stop with the its "character building shit" they must learn for when "they are in the real world"

The real world is a lot easier, then turning up to a toxic environment every day for years under threat of not having a good future and your parents going to court.

@NewYearNewTwatName

Parents who are experiencing their teen suffering during lock down. Spare a thought for the many teens and parent's of teens who suffer years sometimes 5+ plus years of anxiety and depression because of school. You are only dealing with 6 months or so of temporary disruption.

If anything it shows the actual resilience of those teen who have to battle it everyday for years, to get up every morning to face school and all the anxiety, depression, and sometimes bullying that school causing them.

They are the resilient. So stop with the its "character building shit" they must learn for when "they are in the real world"

The real world is a lot easier, then turning up to a toxic environment every day for years under threat of not having a good future and your parents going to court.

Fully agree with all that.

Unfortunately some people (inc teachers) think that bullying etc is just part of growing up and don't take it seriously.

I wonder how much anxiety relief was to do with being away from school itself, and how much was to do with being confined to home . . .. so for those with a relatively happy home life lockdown meant no worrying about social life, no FOMO, no busyness, no peer pressure, a time to connect with family.
Saying that, my teen is very keen to get back to school. He did not enjoy the lack of structure, the boredom of home learning, and time away from friends and school sport.