Study aims to measure mental health impacts of COVID-19 on adolescents

Athira Nair, M.D., seeks to better understand the impact

of the pandemic on adolescent mental health.

Seeking to better understand the mental health impacts of COVID-19 on middle and high school students, USA Health pediatric cardiologist Athira Nair, M.D., is inviting adolescents who were in grades 6 through 12 between February 2020 and June 2021 to complete an anonymous online survey.

“I started noticing of lot of children in my clinic were clinically depressed or their parents were talking about their child being depressed,” said Nair, assistant professor of pediatric cardiology at the USA College of Medicine. “We also know that social isolation in this age group can lead to mental health issues.”

Nair, with assistance from second-year medical student Justin R. Penninger, created an online survey aimed at students who were in at least sixth grade and no older than a senior in high school when the pandemic emerged in the United States in February 2020.

Research shows one in six young people in the United States between the ages of 6 and 17 experience a mental health disorder each year. Half of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14. 

Since the start of the COVID pandemic, Penninger said, one of the biggest challenges adolescents have faced was moving in-classroom learning to online platforms, drastically reshaping the environments where children learn. 

“We created a simple 5- to 10-minute survey that, ideally, sixth through 12th graders will complete,” Penninger said. “The results hopefully will give us a more realistic insight into the status of adolescent mental health.” 

If you know someone who meets the criteria for this survey, please share the link: https://hsredcap.southalabama.edu/redcap/surveys/?s=EWLDHCER33

“Our children’s mental health is so important,” Nair said. “That’s why we need to study, support and improve resources available to help young people who suffer from these issues.”