source:- sootodaycom<\/p>\n
TORONTO \u2014 Lily Francois battled insomnia for a solid week, waking up at 3 a.m., and then struggling to get back to sleep. So the 13-year-old from Cole Harbour, N.S.<\/p>\n
TORONTO \u2014 Lily Francois battled insomnia for a solid week, waking up at 3 a.m., and then struggling to get back to sleep. \u00a0<\/p>\n
So the\u00a013-year-old from Cole Harbour, N.S., decided to switch things up, pitching a tent in her living room and camping out with her younger sister.<\/p>\n
Like most Canadian kids, Francois\u00a0said she’s felt the emotional toll of COVID-19.<\/p>\n
“There’s some\u00a0days where I’m fine and I feel pretty motivated to do things like clean up around the house, do my schoolwork, work out,” Francois said. “But sometimes it’s really hard. . . when you’re just stuck\u00a0in your house and you’re doing the same thing over and over again.”<\/p>\n
Most Canadian teenagers say they’re experiencing feelings of sadness due to the global pandemic, according to a survey released Thursday that sheds light on youths’ feelings, behaviours and attitudes.<\/p>\n
The Social Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadian Youth web survey asked kids aged 12 to 17: How fearful are they of catching the coronavirus? How do they feel about online schooling? Who do they reach out to for information? \u00a0<\/p>\n
“The feelings of anxiety and uncertainty, even though there is a mixed range of emotions, they’re still very high and prevalent,” Ashley Manuel,\u00a0assistant director of the\u00a0Association for Canadian Studies,\u00a0which conducted the study\u00a0in partnership with Experiences Canada and the Vanier Institute of the Family, said during an online\u00a0news conference.<\/p>\n
“And because mental health issues have kind of always been something that this generation has struggled with, they’re definitely more at the forefront during this time.”<\/p>\n
The study found 72 per cent of\u00a0girls reported feeling sad often or sometimes, while\u00a055\u00a0per cent of\u00a0boys did.<\/p>\n
“I miss laughing, honestly.\u00a0My friends and I\u00a0would laugh all the time, we’d find something that was hilarious, and be hysterical over it,” said Chase Ellis, a 13-year-old from Toronto.\u00a0“It’s very hard not being able to be with family and friends, that’s what makes me the most sad.”<\/p>\n
Deja Lee, a 16-year-old from Surrey, B.C., said she rarely feels cheery, but said it’s more indifference than sadness.<\/p>\n
“You just feel less motivation to do things when you’re in the same environment constantly, day in and day out,” said Lee, a top basketball player for her age in B.C. “I’d rather be out with my friends, so I kind of like developed this sense of, not loneliness, because I still have my family around me, but I’m disappointed in a way\u00a0that I don’t get to see my friends and do the things that I usually do.<\/p>\n
Canadian kids are also\u00a0running\u00a0out of ways to entertain themselves\u00a0\u2014 84 per cent of female respondents, and 85 of males\u00a0reported\u00a0feeling bored.<\/p>\n
But feelings\u00a0of joy were also reported, with 86 per cent saying they have “often and sometimes” felt happy since the COVID-19 crisis began.\u00a0The number\u00a0was slightly higher\u00a0among kids aged 12-14 than\u00a0kids in the 15-17 age group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s interesting to see . . . a more nuanced understanding to what all of this means, as they are reporting feeling happy as well,” Manuel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Visible minority and\u00a0immigrant youth, and\u00a0kids with disabilities are both significantly more fearful of catching the virus and more fearful of immediate family members catching it.<\/p>\n
Fifty-two per cent of visible minority and immigrant kids said they were afraid of catching\u00a0the novel coronavirus\u00a0versus 34 per cent of\u00a0non-visible minority kids. There was also a\u00a0gap around the fear of an immediate family member catching it \u2014 80 per cent versus 68 per cent.<\/p>\n
And 74 per cent of kids who had responded that they were “very afraid” of catching the virus also reported they often or sometimes have a hard time sleeping.<\/p>\n
“If I got it, I don’t know what I would do because then I would have to stay in my room, and do my school work and I wouldn’t be able to see my family, and go outside, which is what really is helping\u00a0me in this \u2014\u00a0going outside when it’s nice out,” Francois said. “And also, my grandmother is older, obviously, and if she caught it, I don’t know what would happen, so I’m really worried about that.”<\/p>\n
The study’s findings around school were concerning, says ACS’s president and CEO Jack Jedwab.<\/p>\n
While almost all\u00a0the respondents\u00a0said they missed being in the classroom, the majority of them are doing less than four hours of school work a week.<\/p>\n
“It’s an important takeaway in the sense that doing homework less often is . . . a trend to be concerned about when we go into the\u00a0fall,” Jedwab said. “It could mean that it’ll be increasingly challenging for educators to keep our youth up to the necessary standard with respect to their education.”<\/p>\n
Asked how many hours a week of school work they’ve done, half of the respondents reported two hours or less, the majority falling in the one-to-two hour range. Five per cent of kids in Grades 9 to 11 said they’d done none; 10 per cent of kids in Grade 12 or CEGEP said none.<\/p>\n
“If you consider that relative to how much school work they typically get in a week going to school, that’s quite a drop,” said Deborah Morrison, president and CEO\u00a0of Experiences Canada.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Grade 12\u00a0and CEGEP numbers weren’t surprising, said Morrison,\u00a0since “marks are already into universities and pretty much your school year is well done.”<\/p>\n
But the low numbers in other age groups were worrisome, and suggest that online environments aren’t working for many kids. \u00a0<\/p>\n
“So, if you’re doing less work, and the platforms aren’t intuitive for you and you don’t feel that you’re learning much, then I think we may have a problem going into the fall,” Morrison said.\u00a0“And I know all of the provinces are already on this issue in working hard to figure out better strategies for online learning to bridge that gap.”<\/p>\n
Morrison noted that while school work was going down, housekeeping improved by about 40 per cent.<\/p>\n
“I’m sure parents are pretty delighted about that,” she said.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0study found that\u00a0parents were the biggest source of\u00a0COVID-19 information for their kids, and so Nora Spinks, the CEO of\u00a0The Vanier\u00a0Institute said it’s important\u00a0for parents to\u00a0keep\u00a0those lines of\u00a0communication open. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Ask (kids) questions. Share your own ambiguity around your feelings, so without terrifying them or scaring them at all, letting them know that some days you’re having a good time, and some days not so much,” Spinks said.<\/p>\n
She suggested\u00a0communicating\u00a0around routines\u00a0including dinnertime, and asking questions such as: “How are you feeling today? What are you most anxious about? What are you most excited about?”<\/p>\n
The web study, conducted in partnership with Experiences Canada and the Vanier Institute of the Family, was conducted between\u00a0April 29 and May 5,\u00a0and had 1,191 respondents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3439,3453,3447,2957],"class_list":["post-5378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-insomnia-difficulty-sleeping","tag-insomnia-risk-factors","tag-insomnia-sleep-disorder","tag-novel-coronavirus"],"yoast_head":"\n