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COVID has affected each age group in a different manner, depending on the developmental stage of life, the restrictions imposed, the impact of infection along with the accompanying social and emotional disruption. One group that appears to be uniquely impacted is the Class of 2024, both those anticipating graduation from college and high school next year. COVID hit them at a particularly important transition period in their lives, and many have struggled to recover.
For the high school students, COVID ended their middle school year abruptly in the spring of 2020. There were no parties to attend in June, no graduation ceremonies as students from middle school dispersed to start at various high schools. In some smaller towns, most students move on to high school from middle school as a cohesive group, but in our area, students disperse to their school district assigned school, charter schools, vo-tech schools, and private high schools. While they may certainly see their local friends again the lack of a transitional summer was lost. Even more unsettling was the arrival to high school. For most public schools it was all virtual in the fall of 2020. No orientation in a group, no recognizing friends from earlier school, no participation in sports, no large gatherings at football games or any other events at school. School was a screen with people, and as one student told me, “You can shut the laptop and school is out for the day”. Teachers tended to be lenient in grading, all courses were passed, and as schools moved toward some days in class by the spring of 2021 a pattern had developed of lowered demands on students and uncertainty of the future.
By fall of 2021, the start of 10th grade, schools started to approach more typical scheduling, but that transition year had been lost. Students who I listen to describe being in the middle of high school without ever really starting. Now in their junior year, they are looking at colleges, while feeling that they have missed a chunk of high school that will never be found again.
For the college students, the shift was perhaps even worse. Their high school experience ended abruptly. For those who got their college acceptances and rejections in the spring it was in a void of school year ended early, classes terminated, and all were passed, with no prom, no graduation, no senior skip days, or beach week. They moved into a summer with no jobs, and little or no social contact other than on virtual platforms. This group, left to ‘attend’ college, moved to dorms, only to find single rooms, food delivered to the door and all classes virtual. I talked to students at schools in Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, and Philadelphia who had the same experience. All their families were frustrated at the time and expense of sending them to colleges far from home, only to sit in a dorm room staring at a screen 15 hours a week, with not much else possible. Many stayed in their parents’ home in the spring of 2021, attending classes while at home, both to save the expense of dormitory room and to get a decent meal. While some colleges had in person classes in the 20-21 school year, they were relatively rare and if a student tested positive for COVID or was exposed, they could be quarantined for two weeks. By the start of the 21-22 school year, a year in which many students use to explore more academic areas and declare majors, many of these students feel that they had not yet had any college experience. Now in their junior years, some are taking a 5th year to finish, many are very undecided about next steps whether it be a job or graduate school.
For both groups there are several behavioral impacts of this experience. First, we are seeing an increase in anxiety, uncertainty about the future. The reliable routines, rituals and structures were gone for a while and now they are back, but for how long? Second, we do hear repeatedly about difficulties in executive functioning. That is the ability to plan, initiate, follow through, manage, and complete tasks appears to be impaired in a few students. Whether they are distracted by a life online, or interrupted by anxiety, or having had courses marked complete when they were not finished is not clear. Sustained long term effort on complex tasks appears to be negatively impacted by this experience.
There are no simple solutions to the problems faced by the class of 2024. However, we can as those who help students, start by acknowledging that their world was upended at a critical period in their lives. Instead of diagnosing them as if the problems were driven by some disorder within their cognitive processes, we need to acknowledge what has happened to them. Instead of asking “what is wrong with you”, we should ask “what happened to you”. It is no longer possible to give them a high school graduation or college orientation at this point, but we can acknowledge the impact of all the things that have happened and assist them to put things right as they move forward.
Doug Tynan Ph.D. Bryn Mawr Psychological Associates President, Delaware Psychological Association |
