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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021
Pandemic stress weighs on teens, young adults
By COLLIN BINKLEY
and HANNAH
FINGERHUT
Associated Press
Isolation. Anxiety. Uncer-
tainty. The stresses of the
coronavirus pandemic have
taken a toll on Americans of
all ages, but a new poll fi nds
that teens and young adults
have faced some of the heavi-
est struggles as they come of
age during a time of extreme
turmoil.
Overall, more than a third
of Americans ages 13 to 56
cite the pandemic as a major
source of stress, and many
say it has made certain parts
of their lives harder. But when
it comes to education, friend-
ships and dating, the disrup-
tion has had a pronounced
impact among Generation Z,
according to a new survey
from MTV Entertainment
Group and The Associated
Press-NORC Center for Pub-
lic Aff airs Research.
Among Americans in Gen
Z — the survey included ages
13 to 24 — 46% said the pan-
demic has made it harder
to pursue their education or
career goals, compared with
36% of Millennials and 31%
in Generation X. There was
a similar gap when it came to
dating and romantic relation-
ships, with 40% of Gen Z say-
ing it became harder.
Forty-fi ve percent of Gen
Z also reported greater diffi -
culty maintaining good rela-
tionships with friends, com-
pared with 39% of Gen X
Americans. While many Mil-
lennials also said friendships
were harder, Gen Z was less
likely than Millennials to say
the pandemic actually made
that easier, 18% vs. 24%.
Roughly half of Amer-
icans across generations,
including Gen Z, said the pan-
demic led to struggles having
fun and maintaining mental
health.
The fi ndings are consistent
with what health and educa-
tion experts are seeing. After
months of remote schooling
and limited social interac-
tion, teens and young adults
are reporting higher rates of
depression and anxiety. Many
are also coping with academic
setbacks suff ered during
online schooling.
The outsized impact on
children and adolescents is
partly linked to where they are
in their brain development,
said Dr. Cora Breuner, a pedi-
atrician at Seattle Children’s
Hospital. Those periods are
when humans see the most
growth in executive function
— the complex mental skills
needed to navigate daily life.
“It’s this perfect storm
where you have isolated learn-
ing, decreased social interac-
tion with peers, and parents
who also are struggling with
similar issues,” Breuner said.
It means that, while young
people are falling behind in
school, they’re also behind on
the skills needed to cope with
stress and make decisions, she
added.
For
16-year-old
Ivy
Enyenihi, just thinking about
last school year is hard. While
her parents continued work-
ing in person, she spent day
after day alone at their home
in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her
Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo
Locks cover the fence on the Love Bridge in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh as a person walks by in November.
high school’s online classes
included live interaction with
a teacher just two days a
week, leaving her totally iso-
lated most days.
“I’m a very social per-
son, and so not having peo-
ple around was probably what
made it the hardest,” Enyenihi
said. “It just made normal
things hard to do. And it defi -
nitely made me depressed.”
By the spring semester,
she was skipping assignments
and doing the bare minimum
to get by. She felt cut off from
the classmates and teachers at
her school.
Things have improved
since she returned to in-per-
son classes this year, but she’s
still catching up on math les-
sons she missed last year, and
she wonders if she’s done
enough to stand out on col-
lege applications. Overall, the
sense of isolation has faded,
but its memory lingers.
“It’s still a part of me,” she
said. “If I think of it, it comes
back up.”
Uncertainty around the
pandemic this fall was a top
concern across generations,
with 35% citing it as a major
source of stress. Another
29% said the fear of getting
COVID-19 was a serious
stressor.
Tanner Boggs, 21, says
the pandemic has shaken up
nearly every aspect of his life.
The senior at the University of
South Carolina says his aca-
demics, his mental health and
his physical health all took
hits.
He spent most of last
school year in the bedroom
of his apartment, with waning
motivation to keep up with
online classes. Some days he
would wake up only to log
into a Zoom lecture and then
crawl back into bed. His anx-
ieties worsened until tasks
like going to the grocery store
became unbearable.
He rarely went out but still
ended up getting COVID-19
from a roommate, leaving
him with symptoms that he
still suff ers from, he said.
After getting vaccinated
and returning to in-person
classes, his academics and
mental health have improved.
But some friendships seem to
have faded, he said, and parts
of his life are changed forever.
“The best I can describe
it is tragic,” Boggs said. “It
has aff ected every aspect of
my life from relationships
with friends and peers to
the way I get groceries. Just
everything.”
Compared with other gen-
erations, Gen Z is most likely
to see education as a core part
of their identity, according to
the survey. About two-thirds
in Gen Z said it was very or
extremely important to their
identity, compared to half of
Millennials and about 4 in 10
in Gen X.
It’s no surprise that young
people see education as a
potential obstacle, said Vil-
maris González, who man-
ages youth programs for the
nonprofi t Education Trust in
Tennessee. As many confront
learning setbacks, they’re also
emerging into a world where
the future of work and higher
education are as uncertain as
ever, she said.
“I’m sure we won’t under-
stand the gravity of those
impacts for years to come,”
she said. “This is going
to mark their generation
forever.”
For some, the pandemic
has been a time to rethink
future plans. Before, Gabi
Hartinger, 21, was studying
to become a teacher. But the
last year brought life-chang-
ing turmoil — her father spent
more than 40 days hospital-
ized with COVID-19, and
her own isolation and anx-
iety led her to seek mental
health counseling.
Now, Hartinger, a senior
at the College of the Ozarks
in Point Lookout, Missouri,
hopes to become a school
counselor to help younger stu-
dents coping with their own
challenges.
“For a lot of high school-
ers I knew, school during the
pandemic was a big struggle,”
she said. “I think that that kind
of changed my view on what
I want to do when I get out of
here.”
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