How is the Effect on Young People Different?

Adolescence- a Sensitive Period for Social & Mental Development

Compared with children, adolescents spend more time with peers than with their family and begin to form more complex peer relationships. 

Adolescents are also more vulnerable to mental health problems, with 75% of adults who have ever had a mental health condition reporting that they first experienced symptoms before the age of 24. 

Having high quality friendships are known to protect young people against mental health problems and strengthen their resilience, whereas those with problems in their peer relationships and who experience loneliness or rejection are more likely to develop conditions like depression in their teenage years.

Therefore, the large changes in social environment that young people have faced this year, such as enforced physical distancing and reduced face-to-face social contact with peers, will likely have a substantial effect on brain and behavioural development for young people.

Studies in Animals

In researching the effects of isolation on developing teenage brains, many animal studies have been carried out. Rodent studies have often been used as their development and adolescence goes through similar stages as that in humans. However, little research of this kind has been carried out in humans so the following findings may not fully translate into human effects. 

The studies found that, even after a short time of isolation, adolescent rodents displayed increased anxiety, hyperactivity, and sought more food or drug rewards. The studies concluded that social isolation is a stressor, and some of the effects of isolation can be categorised as the same effect that stress causes inside the brain in other situations.

It also showed that social isolation causes abnormal maintenance of brain mechanisms, caused by the deprivation of stimuli crucial for this development. Another study included isolating rodents for their whole adolescent period, which resulted in them being hyper-reactive to stressful situations, more aggressive, and having lowered performance on cognitive tests.

Digital Forms of Social Interaction

Some studies on adolescent social behaviour show that core benefits of teenagers' face-to-face interactions, like interactivity, social reward, and social support, are present during online communication. It has also been shown to remediate negative feelings after social exclusion.

Nearly 7 in 10 young teenagers in Britain have a social media profile, and the majority say it can make them feel more connected with their friends and gives them access to social support during tough times. 

It has been shown that active uses of social media e.g. engaging in messaging or posting directly on another person's social media profile, have been shown to increase wellbeing and help maintain personal relationships. However, passive uses like scrolling through newsfeeds have not been linked to such benefits, and some negative influences of this have even been proposed.

Also, those with existing strong offline friendships are more likely to benefit from digital interaction but those with a liability to mental health issues could be more susceptible to the negative effects.

There is definitely a potential of social media to dampen the severity of social deprivation in adolescence, so it is a worthwhile factor in assessing the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on young people, and could be beneficial in helping young people look after their mental wellbeing both during and when recovering from the current restrictions.