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Like many other young people, Emily feels that the COVID-19 pandemic – and its series of lockdowns and restrictions – has marked a “turning point” for her mental health. “I was exposed to everything I had repressed – and it caused a huge depression,” the French university student, who was 19 when the pandemic struck in 2020, told AFP.
Pandemic and mental health
Five years later, Emily is still getting treatment for her mental health. She did not want to reveal her last name out of fear it might affect future job opportunities. But she is still alone and struggling with the lasting psychological consequences of the Covid era. Research has shown that young people, who were forced into isolation during one of the most social times of their lives, suffered the biggest mental health hit during the pandemic.
In France, a fifth of 18-24 year olds experienced depression in 2021, according to a survey by the country’s public health agency. In the United States, 37 percent of high school students experienced poor mental health in a single year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And a recent study of more than 700,000 Finnish teenagers published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal had similar findings. “The proportion of participants with generalized anxiety, depression, and social anxiety symptoms…increased from levels before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and remained at these high levels in 2023,” it said.
‘Long tail of challenges’
The next generation is also feeling the impact of the pandemic. Some children who started school as early as five years old have experienced problems in learning and emotional development. A 2023 review of nearly 40 studies in 15 countries, published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, found that children have still not recovered from significant delays in their learning.
“This is a real generational problem,” said Bastian Betthauser, lead author of the study. It appears these problems will persist even post-Covid years. The 2023/2024 academic year in the UK saw an unprecedented level of school absenteeism, according to the country’s education agency Ofsted, which lamented that a “change in attitudes” following the pandemic means attendance is now “viewed more casually.” goes”.
Simon Kidwell, principal of Hartford Manor Primary School in the county of Cheshire, northwest England, said the pandemic had created “a long series of challenges”. “Academically, we caught up very quickly,” he told AFP. However, “we have seen a huge increase in the number of children accessing mental health services,” he said.
Impact of the pandemic on children
Kidwell said there had also been a “huge increase” in the number of children with special educational needs or requiring extra support for behavioral challenges. He said that once they start going to school, young children start having more problems with speech and language.
Some young students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may react differently to time off from school. “A lot of autistic children loved being in lockdown,” said Selina Warlow, a psychologist who works with children affected by these disorders at a clinic in Farnham, near London.
“The school environment is really overwhelming. It’s noisy. It’s busy. It’s really hard for them to be in a class with 30 other kids,” he told AFP. Now, some people may ask “Why was I put back into that?” He stressed that other students with these disorders find it difficult to lose the structure and routine of school. The pandemic also meant that many young children “didn’t get the early support they needed,” she added. “Intervening in those early years can have a huge impact on a child.”
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