Living during these last couple of years has been very stressful for the entire population. Whether it was not being able to see family members, mourning a loss, struggling with sports and education during this time, mental and physical health, or even just feeling stressed out or scared by this virus. Whatever category you fall under, it was a very difficult couple of years and we may still be dealing with the consequences now. I believe that things such as physical health, mental health, and education have been affected because of this virus in all ages but let’s take a look at the affects this virus has had on children, and different aspects of their lives

Education

With all of the different shutdowns and switches between in person learning, hybrid, and fully online, children did not have a stable education the past years. Children of all ages have had to go through the constant changing of education. Thus has made it very challenging for students to strictly focus on their work as they are constantly trying to work new online learning sites, use new technology they may not be familiar with, as well as not being able to get that one on one teacher help that would be available to them with in person school. Research has been done that shows that online learning is only effective if a student has constant access to the internet as well as if the teachers get special training for online instruction. Oftentimes students do not have full access to the internet, or they do not have access to their own computers. We can see from the chart that many do not have access to computers, and are not able to complete their schoolwork because of this. There are also many who do not have access to wifi at home, so they are having to finish school work at public areas, which during the outbreak would be unsafe and hard to accommodate. This would allow children to easily fall behind in their studies due to financial issues being presented into their life. Due to this nonstop shutting down and reopening of schools children have fallen way behind in their studies and some resort to cheating in order to complete their studies. I believe that another main thing that was and still is affecting kids today due to covid is impacts on mental and physical health. 

Mental and Physical Health

Mental and physical health have been a huge issue in this world in all aspects and in all ages, even without the pandemic. Having a shutdown and having isolation affected this aspect of people’s lives tremendously. Oftentimes causing self isolation, and being bed ridden for two weeks if quarantined. Shutdowns caused for sports to stop as well as gyms to close down, therefore having physical health deteriorate. It caused jobs to shut down and people struggling to pay bills and to make money, which caused mental health to skyrocket down. A study done showed how during the pandemic about 4 in 10 adults in the U.S have reported having symptoms of anxiety or depression disorder, which is a large rise in the earlier data from January to June 2019 that showed only 1 in 10 adults who had these symptoms. A Kaiser Family Foundation health tracking poll showed that many adults reported specific negative impacts on their mental health and well-being such as

• Difficulty sleeping (36%)
• Difficulty eating (32%)
• Increased alcohol or substance use (12%)
• Chronic conditions worsening (12%)

This is all due to the stress that people were put through during this pandemic. These are people of all ages that are experiencing these feelings and these symptoms of decreased mental and physical health. The level of physical activity due to the Corona Virus has significantly decreased. Before the virus 69% (83% male, 46% female) were classified as very active, while during the pandemic hit this percentage dropped to 39% (50% male, 31% female). 

I think that we can all agree that living with covid these last couple of years have definitely been a test of strength both mentally and physically, and many individuals of all ages have had to overcome obstacles and hardships in their life. Whether those hardships be dealing with mental illness, struggling with physical health, losing a job, mourning a loss, or the loss of education and participation in the classroom. Whatever aspect of your life was affected, most likely it was affected, and we are still to this day having to work through covid and having to deal with whatever comes our way through this unpredictable pandemic.