CALGARY — All kids on a regular calendar are due back in school this week, but for the third school year, they’ll be affected by the pandemic.
University of Calgary clinical psychologist and post-doctoral research fellow Dr. Nicole Racine says messaging from mental health and pediatric institutions across the country, anticipates that going back to in-person learning will be beneficial.
“Being in school will have a positive implication for children’s mental health,” she said.
“Certainly missing out on school, missing out on the social interactions has had a negative impact.”
Racine was the lead author of a study in which global data from 29 different studies, including over 80,000 children and youth between zero and 18 years of age, showed depression and anxiety symptoms doubling in comparison to where they were prior to the pandemic.
“About one-in-four youth were experiencing symptoms of depression, and about one-in-five were experiencing symptoms of anxiety, and these are clinically significant levels,” she said, attributing this largely to “unprecedented disruptions” both socially and academically.
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“For many youth, their developmental task at this time is to differentiate from their families and to go out and experience the world and this is something that was severely disrupted during the pandemic.”
After analyzing the data, Racine explains older adolescents had the highest prevalence rates with regards to mental health difficulties — girls in particular.
“When we looked across all of these 29 studies, what we found is studies who had higher numbers of girls had higher prevalence rates also,” she said.
“There are a few reasons for this. One might be that generally, girls are more at risk of mental health difficulties in adolescence. But we also think that there were a number of social factors that may have been at play specifically during the pandemic. So for example, girls may be more heavily reliant on their social networks and on friends for support and during the pandemic that was more disrupted.”
Racine says that while the positives outweigh the negatives of returning to school, some children and youth may still be concerned.
“I’ve been speaking with many children, especially those who are under the age of 12 who can’t be vaccinated who have questions about that, or who have been anxious or worried about going back,” she said.
Her recommendations include implementing a regular routine prior to going back and having open conversations where you listen and validate their opinions.
“Helping them to problem solve and think about what are the things that they themselves can directly do that will be helpful, and to focus on the things that are within their control,” she said.
