It’s safe to say that this year has proven to be a challenge for families, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. The last few weeks have been a mixed bag, as many communities experienced a downturn in infections and deaths — while others continue to see them spike up.
With all the uncertainty, many parents are understandably concerned about their child's mental health and what the fallout will be from months of isolation and disruptions to their schooling and social interactions.
The pandemic and your children's mental health
For many families who have been practicing social distancing in their own homes or as part of a Covid bubble since the Spring, the start of “Back to School” was rife with stress. Would our kids be safe? Could they silently spread the virus to vulnerable members of the community? Will home schooling ever end?
Graeme Seabrook of Aurora, Colorado has experienced the effects of Covid stress first-hand, and observed it among members of a social support network she runs for other moms. “We've been talking about the emotional effects of the virus and the lockdown on our kids since the beginning,” Seabrook told Mom.com.
“First, it was shock and fear and how do you explain all of this to young kids? Now it's the continuing effects of isolation — on us and on our kids," Seabrook continued. "In my own family, and in my group of moms, we're seeing a regression in every kid at every age from teens all the way down to preschoolers.
"They're stressed and the stress isn't letting up and so there is a lot of attention-seeking behavior and comfort-seeking behavior. Things like baby-talk coming from 6 and 7-year-olds to nightlights being used by teens, to separation anxiety. And it's all coming at a time when parents are also massively depleted, which makes it even harder to support our kids through this.”
Long-term effects of the pandemic on children’s mental health issues
Dr. Edith Branco-Sanchez, a pediatrician and faculty member at Columbia University, is concerned about the long-term effects of the pandemic on the mental health of our kids.
“For many children, the first signs of anxiety and depression manifest as vague symptoms: a mild headache that won't go away, outbursts of anger, acting out, an inability to focus in school," Branco-Sanchez told CNN. "In the midst of a global pandemic with a rising death toll, these vague symptoms, experienced by children without the ability to verbalize or advocate for themselves, can be easily overlooked in the country's response. But to overlook the mental health of children and teens would have devastating consequences for years to come.”
And California’s surgeon general, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, worries about the long-term effects of the measures we’ve had to adopt to combat the virus. “We should also be concerned about how toxic stress brought on by the pandemic, or made worse by it, will affect children’s developing brains and bodies and their future health,” she wrote in an editorial to the medical community.
Reducing toxic stress is key to preventing children’s mental health problems
Matt Larson is a researcher and the entrepreneur behind the Happy Child app created to help parents understand and avoid the consequences of toxic stress on their kids.
“What we found out really just in the last 10 years or so is this thing we call toxic stress appears to be responsible for a lot of our well-being,” he told Mom.com. He explained that it all comes down to the release of two hormones: cortisol and oxytocin.
“You can think of trauma — even minor trauma — if that never got processed, that can affect you to this day. Cortisol relates to trauma,” Larson said. But “oxytocin is about relationships — you’re in a safe relationship, someone you love gives you a hug…Deep bonds with a parent will make it highly more likely you can bond with other human beings.”
Larson believes the pandemic has positive as well as negative influences on the mental health of our kids.
“In some cases, like if they were being bullied at school, they’re actually better off now, because they're not getting that cortisol spike and they’re not nervous about being bullied," he said. "But largely, the lack of social interaction is causing children’s oxytocin to go down. They’re at home, and home environments are often because of covid, feeling all cooped up. Family members are getting more agitated with each other, and so the tension level is often going up at home."
But Larson is optimistic about the fact that all global pandemics come to an end eventually, and kids can be incredibly resilient.
“The good news is that any relationship can be repaired. We’re learning how to build them on a step by step fashion,” Larson said.
