How Covid-19 has affected teen’s mental and physical well-being?
2020 and 2021 were two life changing years for the entire world. It had affected almost everyone either mentally, physically or both. This survey of the Gen-Z has been taken to determine the same.
This survey was taken of 100 kids from age 9-20 years. 45 kids from the early teen years, 55 from late teen years were taken. These kids were from 8th grade up to 2nd year of college. Most of their parents were educated and from middle or higher middle class while there were a few whose parents had only studied till 12th also, so lower class too. Surprisingly there were also a few who didn’t even know their parents qualifications. Coming to siblings, most had no siblings or 1 sibling which is 21 and 22 respectively and 7 of them had 2 siblings and 5 of them even had 4 siblings.
Moving on to the questionnaire, this pandemic had affected everyone mentally, physically or both. Taking mental health into consideration it affected about 66% of people negatively, and it affected about 8%-12% of people each, positively, both and had no effect. For their physical health it shows the similar data as mental health.
Due to the pandemic everyone was cooped up at home, between four walls so, being isolated from many people they used to see daily had made about 65% of them feel lonely and bored, and 25% used this time to focus on themselves. While, 9% feel the same as they used to.
Approximately 85% of them felt depressed and anxious during the pandemic and 15% didn’t.
Have you felt depressed/anxious during this pandemic?
Their eating habits had changed drastically during the pandemic. For almost half of them their eating habits had been affected negatively meaning they had either consumed less, more in quantity or more of junk food. In contrast, one-fourth of them had started eating healthier, and the same amount have had no change in their eating habits.
Everyone’s screen time had increased but by how much was the question. For 42 people their screen time had been increased by +3-5 hours which means they didn’t use it except when needed for school/college. 32 peoples’ screen time had increased by +5-7 hours which means they did use it for personal pleasure too. And the rest 26 of them have a huge change in screen time which is +7-9 hours which means they used electronics excessively.
A huge effect of increase in screen time is because of the use of social media. A whopping 67% of people’s social media usage had increased. And about 14% of their social media time had stayed the same and 5.5% of their time had decreased. Surprisingly, 12% of them didn’t even use social media, which is mostly ones in their early teens who haven’t been given free access to electronic devices.
Students have their own choice of which mode of learning they prefer. A little over half of them (55%) wish to go back to school and learn i.e, they prefer offline. Remarkably only 8% of them want online mode of learning. But 37% of them do want blended learning.
Everyone’s sleep schedule had also been affected, but it differs person-to-person. We can’t exactly tell if that particular change is positive or negative. 45 of the people had more sleep, 26 had less and 29 had no change.
Many people’s routines had been affected during the pandemic. 68.5% of people’s routine wasn’t fixed and was all over the place while, 31.5% of the people’s routine was fixed and same as earlier.
Due to the sudden change from lockdown to everything offline and again online, schedules were affected too. 72% of people’s routine were all over the place and not fixed and 15% had experienced no change in their schedules.
Regarding the effect of Covid-19 news, most of them were aware about it but they cared more about how it affects them personally than the affect worldwide. As much as they did watch this news it affected quite a lot negatively.
During the pandemic due to the lockdown all of us had extra free time on our hands and choose to spend it differently. According to this survey, 39% of the people did sedentary activities like watching movies/web series, scrolling through social media. 1/4th also indulged themselves in outdoor activities. And the other 35% explored activities such as playing instruments, dancing, singing, art, reading etc.
To keep a check on their mental health a little over half percent talked to their friends and family. Only 8% of them seek professional help, so more awareness should be created towards this. 19% of them listened to motivational speakers or read motivational books. The others listened to songs, journaled, read, draw etc. Astonishingly a few people sent in responses saying that they did nothing about it, think they didn’t need to keep a check, or even annoyed people around them.
Many of their social interactions with friends were affected too. A bit above 50% of them spoke to their friends less or it had become more superficial. And 24% had started talking to their friends more.
Most of them kept themselves indulged in some physical activity to stay fit. 44 people did home workouts, 11 did yoga, and 9 went to the gym. There were also 21 who didn’t do any type of physical activity. Others danced, cycled or went to sports classes.
Talking about household responsibility, chores and helping parents out at home 90% of them helped out at home. So, most of them put a hand in and removed some burden off their parents backs.
During the pandemic due to spending most of their time it’s clear that most of their relationship with their parents has strengthened. As for 61% of them their bond has strengthened which shows a positive affect that the pandemic had. For 18% of them there is no change in their bond. 12% of them said they don’t communicate with their parents as much as they are with them constantly. 10% also said that their interaction with their parents has reduced compared to earlier.
It is clear that during this time it was very easy for students to get distracted, but depends on the activity as well. For many it also depend on their mood at the time and for others they mentioned that they have short attention spans.
A huge majority of people have observed themselves feeling more moody and emotional during these days which is a little above 3/4th percentage.
Due to the increase in consumption of content it’s likely that teens found themselves connecting with virtual reality (fictional characters) more than the people around them. 70% of them said that they did.
Overall everyone learnt something or the other throughout those 2 tough years. Many learnt that they should never take anything or anyone for granted. Spend more time with their family, friends and learn to focus and give some time to yourself. Also quite a few also learnt to find out the people in your life who truly care about your well-being and let go of the rest. A few other things people learnt were to communicate more, be kind to everyone, stay hygienic, adapt to your surroundings and remember that you can’t control everything. Some even tried out new activities. There were also 6-8 people who didn’t learn anything.
Research and report by Aayushi Karandikar
Under the guidance of Tailwinds Team
