Short Wave - How COVID Is Affecting Kids' Mental Health

Episode Date: January 13, 2022

It's likely the last week has been rough if you're either going to school or in a family with kids trying to navigate school, be it virtual or in person. Thousands of schools around the country have shifted to remote learning. Others have changed testing protocols, are seeing staff and students out sick while trying to stay open during the midst of this latest surge. NPR health correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee and NPR education correspondent Anya Kamenetz talk to All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang about the effects on both kids' education and their mental health.Please feel free to e-mail us at [e-mail]. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. I don't know about you, but I could not imagine being a kid or a teenager in school right now. And if you are a kid or a teenager in school right now, you are heroic, amazing, inspiring, learning anything right now at a time when our education system is riding out this pandemic is hard. You don't need me to tell you that it brings a whole host of challenges, including mental health challenges. So we want to make space for that topic today. We're bringing reporting from Shortwave favorite Reto Chatterjee

and education correspondent Anya Kamenance about how students are doing and what can be done to support them. Ritu and Anya spoke with all things considered host Elsa Chang this week. Thanks for listening to Shortwave, the daily science podcast from NPR. From NPR News, this is all. all things considered. I'm Ari Shapiro in Washington. And I'm Elsa Chang in Los Angeles. Anyone with school-aged children knows the last week has been really rough. Thousands of schools around the country have shifted to remote learning, and those staying open are dealing with

students and staff out sick, the burden of testing and masking, and everything it takes to stay open during the midst of a pandemic. We're going to spend the next several minutes now talking about how this moment and the last two years of disruption have affected. the mental health and development of children. NPR health correspondent, RETU Chatterjee, and NPR education correspondent, Anya Kamenitz, are here with us to talk us through all of this. Hey to both of you. Hi. Hello. Hey, Ania, so I want to start with you. Can you just walk us through what we know at this point about how kids have been learning? Yeah, so on the school side, you know, all the data we have says that children didn't learn as much when they were home.

the impacts have been very unequal both by race and by class. Also want to call it students with disabilities that they've been quite severely affected. And some of the longest lasting impacts may actually be in high school students, those who went into the workforce and may never return to their education. Wow. Well, Ritu, turning to you, how would you say kids have been doing emotionally the last two years? So the bottom line, I'll say that kids are struggling. Not every kid, but the number of kids with mental health symptoms. has increased since the pandemic started and it's just gotten worse with time.

So CDC data shows that even early on in the pandemic, when people were afraid to go to a hospital for fear of catching COVID, hospital ERs began to see a proportionately larger number of kids coming to their emergency rooms for mental health needs. And the situation has continued to worsen child psychologists, psychiatrists, children's hospitals, even pediatricians. They're all seeing this. I spoke with the president-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Sandy Chung. She and her colleagues did a survey of pediatricians in Virginia, where she's located, about their experiences with this, and here's what she said. 88% of our pediatricians reported seeing an increase over the last few months,

really since the beginning of the pandemic of the number of children with mental health issues. It's been quite dramatic. And the kinds of symptoms they're seeing sort of span a range, more depression, anxiety, more kids and more younger kids struggling with serious suicidal ideation and attempts, kids with aggression, oppositional behaviors, and also a rise in eating disorders. And what is different about this point in the pandemic that is especially having an effect on children's mental health? Well, the main thing is Elsa, we're two years into this pandemic, right? Or almost two years.

And there is still a lot of uncertainty, stress, instability. And kids have been struggling since the beginning of the pandemic. Some kids who had mental health diagnoses before the pandemic, who weren't able to get care worsened. Then there are kids who developed symptoms for the first time, who also weren't able to get care in a timely manner, and over time have just worsened. And then you take into account that more than 175,000 children have lost a parent or primary caregiver to COVID-19, and we're still seeing deaths go up. And so we're talking about a huge number of children with, like, major childhood traumas. I spoke with Dr. Vera Foyer, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Coins Children's

Medical Center in Long Island, and here's something else, she said. Another basic cornerstone of childhood development is what do they see around them and how are you? the adults behaving. And we know that adults are struggling as well, right? And so it's no surprise that kids are too. Absolutely. Well, Anya, what are you hearing from educators as to what they're seeing? So, you know, I just want to make this personal for a second. My daughter, who's a kindergartner, she has no memories of life before coronavirus or of going to any schools without masks. And so this has really gone on a long time. And some anecdotes from around the country, we're seeing children that have regressed.

So a fifth grader playing alone with a doll at recess instead of with their peers. High school students cutting class and hiding in the bathroom because they don't know how to be in class. They've had social anxiety. There's reports of more physical fights. And I spoke to Candida Ballard who teaches sixth grade in Jefferson County, Kentucky. We have students who are stressed. We have teachers who are stressed. We have families who are stressed.

On top of that, we have behaviors. that are spiraling out of that stress that's manifesting like trauma. So generally, instead of this school year being a dedicated year of recovery, as we'd hoped, schools have stayed in crisis mode almost continuously and including in this current surge. Well, what we've been talking about mostly is what people are seeing in the immediate. But Reto, what are you hearing about whether this will have a long-term impact on kids? Yeah, and that's a question I've been asking a lot of child. an adolescent psychiatrist, and they say that we don't know because it's still happening.

But what long-term research, years of research actually into childhood traumas tells us, is that the death of a parent, food insecurity, addiction, violence in the home, these kinds of traumas in childhood increase the risk of long-term physical and mental health problems. Now, I should clarify that not every child has suffered or suffered to the same extent. for example, kids and communities of color have been affected disproportionately just because of the disproportionate impact on their communities. But as Dr. Sandy Chung tells me the whole situation, it's not one that she considers completely hopeless. The good news is that children are resilient and that with, you know, everyone coming together and focusing on working to improve this and to provide those supports now, I think there is hope.

And I think that's something that everybody's realizing and trying to address. And the other good thing that's come out of the pandemic is that this mental health crisis in kids has gained more recognition nationally. You might remember the Surgeon General's advisory on youth mental health that he put out last month. And there have been federal dollars invested in addressing access to mental health care. There's still a lot to be done. But as psychiatrist I've spoken to say, it's a really good start. Well, how about that?

Anya, is there anything else that we have learned from this pandemic that can be applied in years to come well after this pandemic's over? So I really share Ritu's optimism or the idea that the new focus on these issues may bring good changes. As an educational reporter, as a mother, I know the essential services that schools provide not only socially, educationally, sometimes food and heat. And so more and more the country now is noticing all of this and all the things that schools do. And so the question now is, is our country willing to do what it takes to make sure the schools stay open, even if that means maybe closing other things and giving schools what they need to stay open safely? Yeah. That is NPR's Anya Kamenitz and Ritu Chatterjee. Thanks to both of you. Thank you, Elsa. Thank you.