Study Finds Covid Lockdowns Hurt Kids Far More Than Officials Were Willing To Admit

Children’s mental health unsurprisingly plummeted when they were forced to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent study has discovered.

Using medical claim data from a large private health insurer in California, researchers found that school closures were associated with increased spending on depression and anxiety treatments for five to 18-year-olds, according to The New York Times. During the pandemic, a stunning 2.8% of kids required professional help for mental health, but not long after schools reopened, children were 43% less likely to need treatment for mental health conditions.

Young girls were especially impacted by the pandemic, the study found.

“School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted children’s 🎓Education, socialization, and access to mental health resources, raising concerns about long-term effects on mental health,” the study stated. “In-person learning is an important component of children’s mental health.”

Medical spending and prescriptions issued for mental health concerns began declining about four months after schools reopened, dropping further after six months, according to the Times. Spending on medication for issues such as depression and anxiety decreased by 7.5%, and spending on therapy and similar treatments declined by 10.6%.

For most of the pandemic, discussing the downsides of prolonged school closures was treated as socially and professionally off-limits. One co-author of the study expressed frustration that people were not open to those conversations at the time, saying they were often “immediately jumping to very political, hyperpartisan responses.”