Let’s see what are the elements that have weighed most on the psychophysical well -being of children and adolescents, and how to offer them concrete help
More than a year after its explosion, how to evaluate the impact that the pandemic emergency had on the mental and emotional health of girls and boys, girls and boys? What were the consequences on their psyche? Several studies and journalistic investigations are trying to answer these questions, all over the world, and the data that emerge arouse concern. Let’s see better why.
What studies say: an increase in disorders
The thought of one Invisible but concrete threatwidespread everywhere, is anxious and stressful for everyone. Even more in a context characterized by a strong insecurity from various points of view, aggravated by a often confused and contradictory journalistic and institutional communication. In particularly delicate age such as childish and adolescence the consequences of this scenario can become seriesespecially for those who already have fragility.
Some research (1) conducted in different European countries have highlighted an increase in phenomena and conditions, such as self-harm acts or post-traumatic stress disorder (2), linked in various ways to isolation. There is also a growth in episodes of cyberbullying and a widespread and generalized amplification of eating disorders (often connected to body perception and self -esteem disorders), as well as anxious and depressive states. Difficulties have also been reported in compensating specific learning disorders.
Fears and phobias had easy game: Among these, the anxieties related to a sociability as desired as perceived as potentially threatening, but some clues also lead to fear that an excess of germophobia and fear of diseases can be spread at the new generations, who grew up in the climate of the pandemic.
At the origin of stress
To better understand the origin and scope of the emotional impact of the situation, we asked for the opinion of Pasquale Musso, Professor of Development Psychology at the University of Barialways interested in the issue of discomfort in evolutionary age.
What aspects of the emergency have interfered most with the psychophysical well -being of children and adolescents? “The answer to this question – he told us – is neither simple nor unique and would require considering the intersection between different levels, from the individual to the company. However, we can try to draw some conclusion from the point of view of development science. In particular, the perspective of risk and resilience in development can meet us. The risk refers to conditions that could represent a significant threat to the adaptive function or the development of a person (as is the case of Covid-19 pandemics), while resilience refers to adaptation or positive development in the context of risk.
Studies on children and adolescents tell us that resilience depends on the power of common adaptation processes emerged in the context of evolution and human culture. In poor words, What matters is the “extraordinary strength of ordinarity” (The psychologist of US development Ann S. Masten coined the expression Ordinary Magic In a famous article (3) of 2001 onAmerican Psychologist), which is a help in peaceful times, but also serves as a protection network for survival and recovery in difficult circumstances.
The lack of ordinarity is precisely the condition that, for more than a year now, weighs seriously on the lives of children and adolescents, with different effects depending on the functionality of their life context. And the elements that constitute this “extraordinary ordinarity” are different and all very important for the adaptation of children and teenagers ».
The role of significant ties
The psychologist underlines: “First of all, there is The system of significant relationships and links with other people. Our survival from babies, our children’s protection and our safety from teenagers depend to largely on the quality of these relationships, so a key role is played by the family, especially at the beginning of life. With growth, teachers, peers and religious and spiritual figures also take on more and more importance. If these relationships work well (especially the most important), the child and the teenager will be potentially protected by adversity; If, on the other hand, for some reason they do not work, you can find more vulnerable in the face of difficulties ».
The current situation inevitably engraved on this support network. The expert continues: «The pandemic emergency drastically changed the relational system of our children and teenagers, with one strong limitation of flooded family contacts (which often also include grandparents) and extra-family (for example, the regularity of the meetings with teachers and companions at school has failed). Thus, those who had the support of a network of functional relationships found themselves faced with their impoverishment, while probably maintaining an effective adaptation to the situation. But children and teenagers who already lived dysfunctional family conditions, have felt even more vulnerable and without protection.
In summary, The emergency made our children and adolescents less protected by further adversities, but above all it made those who were already leaving even more vulnerable. The increase in psychiatric pathologies and phenomena of group aggression in teenagers are demonstration “.
Less experiences that help grow
But there are also other factors to be kept in mind, whose importance is not immediately intuitive. Musso adds: “The “sense of self -efficacy”, that is, feeling able to carry out tasks successfully, feeds with experience. Unfortunately, the containment measures related to the emergency have the consequence of limiting many of the activities of children and teenagers, from sport to music, from art to travel, just to make some examples. This reduces their possibility of exploring environments and situations in which they can more easily master the effort to achieve success. The prolonged lack of such an ordinarity can have the consequence of decreasing the perception of one’s skills And, therefore, one’s adaptation skills ».
Then there is another role of the school, parallel to education: “Another aspect – continues the expert – concerns theself -regulationboth in its cognitive and emotional component. The abilities of attention and concentration, as well as the self -control of emotions or behavior, are connected to positive adaptation, competence and success. Normally the school plays a decisive role in the process of developing self -regulation skillswith teachers and even the peers who act as tutors, motivators and model.
The pandemic emergency has limited this ordinary function of the schoolwhich has remained substantially to families and individual children and adolescents. Thus, the most vulnerable manifest more often and more intensely psychological problems (distractability, anxiety and depression, somatic and social problems) and misunderstanding behaviors (aggression and conduct disorders). Children and adolescents are perceived today more “defenseless” in the face of the unexpected events of life (for example, a disease, a social difficulty, a family separation), They begin to warn less competent and active (probably more apathetic) and risk more cognitive, emotional and behavioral self -control problems “.
Looking for a “new ordinarity”
How to be concretely helpful to children and teenagers? «To support children and teenagers in this situation – recalls Pasquale Musso – It is important to recover conditions of ordinarity, or even “new” ordinarity. For example, create stable routines During the day (from alarm, lunch, physical activity, tasks, to leisure); encourage opportunities for allow significant relationships to be growing safely of children and teenagers, even if online; push them to Look for activities that can be carried out in the current conditions, in order to experiment with new areas of competencehow to paint, dedicate yourself to photography, to digital realizations, to digital music and so on.
A certain cognitive and emotional autonomy must be granted to teenagersfor example, guaranteeing them their own physical space, even momentary, and supporting them in the need to maintain a “integrated” distance in the family, striving to be present, persistent and flexible models in overcoming life difficulties at this emergency moment “.
Ask for help when needed
Sometimes, however, external help is needed. Musso adds: “It happens that, even following the best intentions, some children or teenager cannot better express their adaptive functions. Excessive non -controllable anxiety, often inexplicable aggressive behaviors, an excess of attention to small somatic defects, such as to induce the refusal to look in the mirror or to turn on the Camera of the PC, strong apathy protracted over time, social retreat and excessive shyness … are just a few examples of situations that could request the help of a professionalwho will evaluate what are the operating areas to be supported and will intervene, after having adequately formulated hypotheses on the evolution of the situation and on any risk indicators and opportunities for future development “.
In these cases, the adult reference figures must be ready to grasp the signals and offer availability to listen and support in the recovery pathsbecause, however difficult, a situation may appear, the roads to manage it always exist and they are all the more effective the more the various elements of the support network prove to be attentive and willing to collaborate.
