Hello everyone, I'm a Summer.

This morning brush to Beijing parents circle of friends, the heart of a surprise —— year Shenzhen Shanghai, the middle of Xinjiang Jilin, the end of the Guangzhou, Beijing and so on, let a person sigh when can return to campus life?

Children are the product of the environment, in the special era, we can not help but worry: whether the COVID-19 generation will be affected physically and psychologically affected?

After all, adults like you and I often feel very anxious, so will children who are extremely sensitive to the surrounding environment, whether babies or high school students, face more serious "secondary disasters"?

The epidemic has changed the children's brains

"I shut up at home, not exercising, not social, I am stupid, let alone children? Talking to parents about the investigation, everyone knows why.

A longitudinal French research study showed that isolation led to increased psychological stress, and increased perceptual disturbances, subclinical psychotic symptoms, and trust in pseudoscience.

In an interview with Wu Xiaoli of Phoenix TV, Professor Peng Kaiping of Tsinghua University also mentioned that he had investigated the uncertainty of the —— epidemic, the large-scale suspension of social activities and the economic impact. Everyone's mood is really unhappy.He called it "middle-class unhappy".

There is a concept in psychology called mirror thinking. In a closed family environment, the fluctuations of parents' emotions directly reflect the changes of their children.

Dr. Yang Yanping of the Shanghai Institute of Education Sciences surveyed more than 1,600 teenage families in 2020 and 2022 respectively, and found that long-term home stay made the parent-child relationship increasingly disharmonious.

In addition to the family environment, the children also suffer from the social environment.

A paper from Brown University shows that the brains of COVID-19 children have been affected by the pandemic, and the longer the outbreak lasts, the more problems their children have.

The Brown University Advanced Baby Imaging Lab study found that infants born during the outbreak were nearly two standard deviations lower in a series of IQ tests, and that boys were affected more severely than girls, with major motor skills the most affected.

At the second World Health Conference held by Tsinghua University at the weekend, Lu Lin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also pointed out several reasons:

Children and adolescents can not go to school, can only teach online at home, lack of peer communication, no physical activities, no outdoor activities. Some teenagers even do not adapt to the long time at home during the epidemic and returning to school, causing many problems.”

An overseas paper in 2021 also demonstrated the impact of the outbreak and quarantine on children and adolescents.

For children and adolescents, the central nervous system (central nervous system, CNS) is in a vulnerable developmental window, and any stress challenge during critical periods can trigger short-term and long-term cognitive and behavioral impairment.

Continuous and enhanced stress events at this stage, through HPA leading to changes in the levels of mediators in the brain, affect the secretory and nervous system brain, which is positively associated with anxiety and depression presentation in adulthood.

Longitudinal studies have also shown that loneliness during childhood and adolescence is significantly associated with high levels of C-reactive proteins later in life, and that these dysfunctions have been widely shown to impair neurodevelopmental processes and lead to cognitive and mood disorders.

Another important concern is the impact of fear on children and adolescents.

One study said fear was common among children and adolescents during the outbreak. Adolescence is the developmental window mediating fear stress-sensitivity, and chronic stress has a large impact on amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity and activity.

At the same time, adolescence is also highly sensitive to the social environment, and social contact is crucial to developing cognition, emotion, attachment and relationships. The lack of social interaction can also lead to various problems.

The outbreak continues, many studies are under way, and we may wait until these children grow up to have a definite answer.

Global adolescent psychological problems worsen

Research is still ongoing, but the parents of the COVID-19 generation do not have the time to wait, and the children are changing every day.

Most obviously, the learning efficacy is greatly reduced.

An overseas study of 250,000 different countries and ages found that no matter how interesting the learning methods are, the completion rate of online courses was not promoted.

Only rigidity (such as exams) and self-discipline are the key to ensure the effect of online courses. But in the high pressure on the long just need to test, will also let the child's anxiety index rise rapidly.

In a 2022 survey in Shanghai, it was found that many students had generally felt upset that the outbreak was not over.

Especially for students in grade two and senior three, anxiety will get at home longer and longer.

At the same time, there are more and more students' procrastination. Almost every day, teachers tell me that after the epidemic, students are not as active as before, which is worse year by year, and they could not push it.

However, the lack of sports and social interaction greatly reduces the students' willingness to communicate and cooperate. The social skills of this generation of children are becoming weaker and weaker, so they choose to devote themselves to the virtual online world, such as addiction to live broadcasting and games.

This is not a challenge for a few children, but a time for this generation of children and teenagers around the world.

In late 2021, a study covering 80,000 adolescents worldwide found that the number of adolescents with anxiety and symptoms of depression had more than doubled during the outbreak.

For example, data from the US CDC also showed that US adolescents aged 12 to 17 years had 31% more ER visits for mental health problems in 2020 compared to 2019.

The BBC Survey also showed adolescent mental distress among both boys and girls compared to 2017 and 2020 data.

A study of 1036 isolated children and adolescents aged 6 to 15 years showed 112,196 and 68, respectively, with depression, anxiety and both symptoms.

Surveys from India also showed that the children experiencing isolation experienced helplessness (66.11%), worry (68.59%) and fear (61.98%) compared with non-isolated children.

Finally, it is what Professor Peng Kaiping said, that in the post-epidemic era, students have appeared:

"The massive suspension of social activities has caused social isolation. In November 2021, with the help of Xinhua News Agency, we surveyed more than 300,000 Chinese primary and middle school students, and found that the harm of psychological problems has increased a lot.

Especially the children "four no" ——

Learning without motivation, no parents and teachers to force the children not to love reading;

No interest in the real world, addicted to games, various social media, no interest in real people and things;

Social inability;

No sense of the value of life.

Our next generation is more affected than we think. Three years of youth were spent in the epidemic, a tragedy that has never been experienced in human history.”

Hope to be a reality

So, for the home, also can not be ruthless to go abroad, or there is no way to change the status quo of us, how to change the situation of the small family?

As parents, we should first take care of our own hearts.

We should know that in 2022, mental illness has more than 1 billion people worldwide, including depression, anxiety, insomnia disorders, the burden of these diseases ranks first in the world. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, nearly 50 million people with depressive disorders and more than 70 million people with anxiety disorders have increased worldwide.

In view of the domestic situation, Lu Lin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and dean of the Sixth Academy of Peking University, gave specific figures:

From the start of the COVID-19 outbreak to a year later, the number of people with mental distress has remained at about 45 percent, the symptoms of depression have increased from 30 percent to 33 percent, and insomnia has increased by about 30 percent.

Remember the mirror image principle mentioned above?

Children are the most sensitive creatures, in a closed environment, the parents' emotions will directly affect the state of the child, just like looking in the mirror. Therefore, parents should first take good care of their own body and mind, before they can provide a positive environment for their children to grow up.

Before you talk about psychology, focus on physiology

Food affects brain development. Several studies have shown that nutritional status and adequate sleep during neurodevelopment are crucial for the normal development of children and adolescents.

It has been suggested that appropriate intake of high-calorie foods during isolation can be used as an alternative to mitigate the negative effects of stress. And ensure balanced nutrition, such as breakfast foot protein and lecithin, eat some vitamin B and so on, can make people more active.

Sleep, a regular schedule, and exercise are also crucial. Many psychological problems also come from physiology, and the possible physical problems are half solved.

Social, make the child more determined

Research has long shown that, from an evolutionary perspective, the formation of social bonds is crucial to human survival and ensure healthy cognitive, emotional, endocrine and immune development.

In other words, social contact can help children develop cognitive, emotional, attachment and relationships, as well as physically help the body regulate an acute stressor.

Indeed, maintaining intimacy with important people is key to establishing and maintaining human social bonds. The study found that if parents and children are in a harmonious environment, children and adolescents are critical to dispelling loneliness and fear.

We can also support our children in their virtual social interaction after online classes. This stage is more dependent on your friends. While virtual relationships are not necessarily useful for physical contact, they are also an option.

The PTGD shows the growth after the trauma

Three professors from the London School of Economics and the Singapore School of Management conducted comparative empirical studies of nearly 10,000 people and found that:

Intelligence is related to psychological responses to COVID-19; people with higher IQ are more likely to be dissatisfied and unhappy with their life during COVID-19.

To put it simply, this is because COVID-19 has never appeared in human history. In the face of unprecedented major events, people with high intelligence have awakening awareness, self-awareness and judgment of unknown events. This sober awareness and the reflection of social reality are disturbing.

The good news is that people who are aware are also more self-reflective and can walk out of trouble with a positive attitude.

Professor Peng Kaiping put forward a theory —— social mood is more common, there will be traumatic growth "PTGD" (Post-traumatic growth and development), so that people pay attention to family, affection, health.

I think of the post-2005 people who shared their stories with us about the epidemic. They have been actively supported by adults and have strong thinking and resistance to frustration in the face of uncertainty.

As Moriah Thomason, psychologist for children and adolescents at the Grossman School of Medicine, said, " As long as the restrictions placed on children disappear, we still have time to correct them and there is no generation hurt by COVID-19.」

How much I wish this would come true.