The Negative Effects of The Covid Pandemic on Teenagers

The Coronavirus has affected teenager's mental health, relationships, and student learning this past year. Because of the Coronavirus has affected teenager's mental health by taking jobs away and cutting pay in half., The covid pandemic affected teenager's relationships by closing schools down and sports too causing us not to see our friends., and The virus has affected teenagers' student learning by causing senior's not able to walk the stage and making it harder for teachers to teach students over zoom classes.

Covid has negatively affected teenagers' relationships in several different ways. First, teenagers have not been allowed to see their friends during school, which has caused mental health issues. In the article, it says, "Closure of schools and separation from friends can cause stress and anxiety in children" (Castaneda). The pandemic caused the in-person schools to close, which meant that teens could not see their friends as easily. These missing interactions caused negative mental health issues. Second, teenagers did not have access to the usual support services they received from schools. The article states that "...to be disconnected from arguably the only universal support system is disastrous. It means higher rates of suicide. Higher rates of depression, addiction, mental illness and physical disability..." (Einhorn). Teenagers rely on the relationships they have with school support systems to stay mentally healthy. When the pandemic closed everything, they lose those connections and relationships that they depended on, which has negative consequences. Lastly, teens have experienced an increase of negative online interactions due to a lack of in-person interactions. Research shows that this extra online activity "can put children at heightened risk of online sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, online risk-taking behavior, and exposure to potential harmful content" (Castaneda). With everything closed, students are not able to see their friends easily, but they still crave those interactions. This drives them to turn to online interactions instead. However, instead of a beneficial impact, it opens them up to a wide range of negative impacts that they would not experience during in-person interactions. All together, these are the different ways the pandemic has negatively affected teenagers' relationships.

The Covid pandemic has affected teenagers' mental health in negative ways. First, the hospitals have seen more cases of mental health issues for teenagers since the pandemic has started. For example, "Emergency rooms have seen a 24 percent increase in mental health-related visits from children ages 5 to 11 compared to last year. The increase among older kids is even higher - 31 percent" (Einhorn). The number of visits to emergency rooms for mental health issues has risen dramatically since the pandemic has started. This shows that the pandemic is negatively affecting teens and their mental stability. Next, teens have had negative feelings because of the pandemic. The article states, "Teens may feel frustrated, nervous, disconnected, nostalgic, and bored because of social distancing during this pandemic" (Castaneda). Social distancing is something that is happening solely because of the pandmeic. If teenagers did not have to stay away from their friends, they would not be experiencing these negative emotions. Finally, teenagers are stressed out, because their paychecks are being cut in half or they are losing their jobs due to covid lockdowns. According to the article, "Many adolescents have jobs...that have closed, reduced the services being offered or reduced their hours of operation. The young people working at these establishments count on their paychecks to help with household expenses, to pay for things that are important to themselves...or to save for college or other future events" ("The Impact") Teenagers often need the money they earn from their jobs to buy necessary items. When they are no longer earning that money, they become stressed because they no longer have that support. The pandemic has caused many teenagers to experience this stress since they could not work as much as they normally would. In conclusion, this is how teenagers have been mentally affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

This is how the coronavirus has affected teenager student learning. First, Seniors have been affected by covid because they don't know if they will graduate or not be able to go to college too. For example, "Senior year is typically the high point of a student’s high school career. Seniors this year are worried about being able to graduate. They’re worried about being able to qualify and be fully prepared for college admission. They’re aware that many colleges and universities that have shut down and wonder how this will affect their own future plans. If schools remain closed for the rest of the spring, students in their senior year will likely forfeit their last shot at a championship sports season, miss their last chance to perform with the choir, or never get to perform in the play they’ve been rehearsing for so long." ("The Impact") The pandemic is causing students to miss school and affect learning. Next, teachers have had a difficult time teaching during covid and students have had a hard time learning and understanding new things. This article states, "Schools are struggling to teach students remotely or in classrooms in which children wear masks and sit behind plastic shields. One national testing organization reported that the average student in grades 3-8 who took a math assessment this fall scored 5 to 10 percentile points behind students who took the same test last year, with Black, Hispanic and poor students falling even further behind." (Einhorn) The covid pandemic is affecting the way kids learn an how teachers teach us and test scores have been falling because of covid too. Finally, covid is affected face to face school, students and teachers are having trouble with online learning plus kids with disabilities aren't even coming to school because of the covid pandemic. According to the article,"Classrooms have been unusually empty, with quarantines and sickness affecting attendance in face- to-face schools and computer issues interfering with online instruction. Some districts report that the number of students who’ve missed at least 10 percent of classes, which studies show could lead to devastating lifelong consequences, has more than doubled. And an estimated 3 million vulnerable students — who are homeless, in foster care, have disabilities or are learning English — appear to not be in school at all." ("The Impact") Coronavirus is affecting how we learn and how teachers teach now. Plus everyone isn't attending school because of no transportation and no food because of covid. In conclusion, this is how teenagers' student learning is being affected by the covid pandemic.

Overall this essay shows how the covid pandemic affected teenagers mental health, relationships, and student learning. Because of the Coronavirus has affected teenager's mental health by the hospital seeing more teens cause of covid and social distancing , The covid pandemic affected teenager's relationships by closing down parks, malls, and going on lockdown too causing us not to see our friends., and The virus has affected teenagers' student learning by causing high schoolers to worry about not passing to the next grade and making it harder for students to learn and obtain new things.