I don't think blaming the pandemic for youth suicide is the correct path to take although it is the most convenient. There are a lot of things at work in these dynamics and closing schools seems to me to be the least of the issues.
In a 2005 study of suicides among young people (click here) shows the likelihood is more strong in young men than women except in countries where woman are undervalued and there the statistics are higher. From the information in this New York Times article that demographic has held up in the USA. So, the idea the pandemic is driving more young men to commit suicide is probably not likely. What is probably at work here is negative self-talk and how they identify themselves.
The youngest is nine and that is where puberty begins with hormones raging. I think there is a deeper driver to this and as a society, we need to look at it and not simply blame the pandemic.
In the case of the older age bracket, there is the issue of social contact and DATING. There isn't much of that being discussed and the idea of a date on Friday night at the movies is an impossibility. Young people identify intensely when it comes to who they feel attracted to and sexual attractiveness. School is an incubator to those issues. Even if school attendance change to in-person, the social component is still missing for dating and person to person contact.
Young Americans are intent on successful lives when they approach adulthood. Some of these young people feel alienated from those goals. Academics online is like an out of body experience. I think as a society we need to erase the academic performance for the period this virus has caused altered learning patterns. Those years have to be looked at with skepticism when a young person is applying to college and work. There will be some students that find online learning better than in-class learning, but, that would be the case in or out of school. Some adapt better than others. In interviews, there is nothing wrong with students expressing their reality during these years such as, "My academics dropped a bit during the pandemic. I didn't do as well with online classes, but, I tried."
Where are college achievement exams being conducted? What is the indication there?
What I believe is driving this dynamic is the fact screen time is not limited. Children now have more access to social media to be with friends and that opens up greater opportunities for bullying. It also opens up different measures that children will use to bully. In other words, when a child has a school environment where bullying occurs it can be based on physical stature and sports activities. Online there are issues with character issues and physical appearance. When children are in school the online component is an element to the bullying but not the entire picture. Bullying is also mitigated by teachers and principals when in class attendance occurs, that supervision/mitigation isn't happening with stay-at-home students.
January 24, 2021
By Erica L. Green
Since schools shut their doors in March, an early-warning system that monitors students’ mental health episodes has sent more than 3,100 alerts to district officials, raising alarms about suicidal thoughts, possible self-harm or cries for care. By December, 18 students had taken their own lives.
The spate of student suicides in and around Las Vegas has pushed the Clark County district, the nation’s fifth largest, toward bringing students back as quickly as possible. This month, the school board gave the green light to phase in the return of some elementary school grades and groups of struggling students even as greater Las Vegas continues to post huge numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths....
The health statistics among children still favor staying at home. There are about 3.4 percent of all children up to the age of 18 that have contracted COVID-19. That means more than 96 percent of all school-age students are still safe. I think as a country we need to decide how best to protect the health of our children and THEN provide an education that helps maintain the status quo but might fall short of the usual outcomes.
As of January 14, about 2.5 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 (click here) since the onset of the pandemic. Over 211,000 new child COVID-19 cases were reported last week, the highest weekly increase since the pandemic began.
The age distribution of reported COVID-19 cases was provided on the health department websites of 49 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Children represented 12.6% of all cases in states reporting cases by age. A smaller subset of states reported on hospitalizations and mortality by age; the available data indicated that COVID-19-associated hospitalization and death is uncommon in children.
At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is rare among children. However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects....
I think parents, as well as children, need support groups to bring about their best outcomes in coping as a family in very unusual times.
Unemployment also plays into family tensions. Financial difficulties are not adequately handled either. There used to be such a thing called welfare for families in need and there was rental assistance as well.
The overall biggest problem is the PROLONGED success of SARS-CoV-2 in our society. The USA's dynamic is alone globally. That is a clear sign the way this virus is handled in the USA is completely wrong.
