BiB study: more adolescents with depressive symptoms


Status: 07/28/2021 12:46 p.m.

According to a study, homeschooling and distance learning in the first corona lockdown put a heavy strain on the psyche of children and adolescents. According to this, deficits in the level of education have also increased.

According to an analysis by the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), the number of young people with signs of depression increased significantly in the first corona lockdown last year.

“As a result of the pandemic, an additional 477,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 19 are affected by depressive symptoms,” said Research Director Martin Bujard at the presentation of the study. That is a “considerable order of magnitude”, even if it is a matter of self-assessments and not all those affected have also “gotten sick”. Symptoms ranged from silent withdrawal to behavioral problems and eating disorders.

Open schools as a priority

For its study, which also looked at the effects of school closings on the level of education and families, the institute extrapolated analyzes from the so-called family panel pairfam from early summer 2020.

Before the pandemic, ten percent of adolescents aged 16 to 19 had depressive symptoms; at the end of the first lockdown it was 25 percent. There are clear differences between the sexes: In female adolescents, there was an increase in depressive symptoms from 13 to 35 percent in the pandemic, and in male adolescents there was an increase from 7 to 15 percent.

Girls and young people with a migration background in particular are more likely to be affected by the effects of school closings on mental health, said Bujard. “Keeping schools open should therefore have high priority so that psychological stress and learning delays cannot increase even further.”

Only make up for learning gaps in the long term

According to the study, the time spent homeschooling and distance learning had different effects on young people’s level of personal learning and development. Around two out of three young people got through the previous restrictions “despite some difficulties relatively well”. It can be assumed that in this phase they also acquired additional skills, for example in the areas of digitization and self-employment.

On the other hand, according to the analysis, the effects of the pandemic would have particularly disadvantaged children and young people from so-called educationally disadvantaged families. The same applies to young people for whom German is not spoken at home. In addition, learning deficits and psychological problems could mutually reinforce each other in some children. However, it is important not to build up too much pressure to learn in the short term. Compensating for educational deficits is a long-term process.

Call to politics

According to the experts, looking at the mental health of children and adolescents in the corona pandemic must be just as important as closing educational gaps. “Contacts with peers, joie de vivre and age-appropriate experiences in sport, leisure or travel will therefore be central in the future, not just tutoring,” the study says.

Mentally healthy and self-confident children could better catch up on possible learning deficits, explained the experts. Programs that finance children from socially disadvantaged families to take part in excursions and school trips are helpful. Psychosocial and health impairments should therefore be taken into account extensively in political decisions.



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