Post COVID-19: How Will Youth Handle Life’s Social and Emotional Challenges?

In a matter of weeks, the world as we knew it changed. The coronavirus and social distancing halted everything – our work, our social connections, and our lives.   The question is, how do we deal with the challenges now and in the future?  

It is my intention in this article to explore the various problems the virus has created for youth education, family dynamics, new age society, and child welfare in addition to raising questions on their possible solutions. But to avoid the possibility that my analysis will be interpreted as one-sided, I must first discuss what these issues looked like pre-coronavirus.

Before “all of this”, the children of America had enough problems to deal with: food & housing insecurity, materialism, bullying, substance abuse, child abuse/neglect, dating violence, and educational inequalities.

Now, with COVID-19, what will happen to the different parts of functioning society? The impacts extend beyond the diagnosis and symptoms.

Questions to think about:

Education

  • What will be impacted by the youth who are homeschooled?
  • What about families facing educational disparity that could not afford food and supplies, to begin with, and now there is no access?
  • How will youth with intellectual disabilities get help and cope with this new learning environment?

Family / Relationships

  • What will happen to people experiencing domestic violence who are stuck in the home with their abuser?
  • How will parents and caretakers support their children’s needs and their own?
  • Where will families get the resources they need for food and housing when they were already limited?

Youth Welfare

  • What will happen to children experiencing other forms of mental health concerns?
  • What are the resources available to children experiencing child abuse?
  • What will be the developmental impacts of the new world environment on youth in different stages, such as teens experiencing puberty and developing self-esteem and identity development?

Brace yourselves, the world, our society, is changing.  The solutions we had only a month ago for our society are no longer viable.  We need to start over again and think about our needs and come up with new solutions.

Child Abuse

For example, let’s look at the children who experience child abuse. Stay at home order means abuse in the home that goes unreported. The pandemic has influenced a rise in child abuse cases.

Child Protective Services and social workers are limited in their ability to go into homes to protect because of social distancing measures. While this helps prevent the spread of COVID-19, across the United States (and the world), children do not have the safety net of their schools and mandated reporters to protect them.

Without excusing the behavior, the rise in the stress of parents may influence the rise in frustration taken out on their children when they are in the home together for this extended time. It can be challenging to have to educate, entertain, and watch children 24/7 with no other forms of childcare available.

But don’t get me wrong, this is not to say that all parents will eventually fall into this. However, with higher levels of stress, there is a higher risk of abuse. Especially given the financial hardships and unemployment occurring and across the country influencing higher levels of stress in many households.

After this pandemic, there will be a new way of reporting the abuse with help from technology and mandated reporters. The community will need to work together in different ways to help the children who cannot help themselves. I plan to explore this deeper in my next article.

There’s Hope

When things begin to turn back to “normal”, there will be greater opportunities for people living with these issues.  The business of everyday society is now a slow pace of doing what we can to get by. These questions I pose about our youth are just some things to think about.

Humanity is an adaptable and resilient group that continuously finds a way to turn tragedy into triumph.

With every challenge, there is an opportunity to do things better.  From time to time I will be writing about how we can overcome these topics.

I am excited to communicate with you. Please message me directly.