When COVID-19 struck in 2020, there was much speculation in scientific societies about the variety of aftereffects it was likely to have. Four years after the incident, looking through the news about sudden deaths in young people aged 15 to 30, it is clear that not much research has been done on the subject. Even when these conclusions are available, they are not made available to the general public.
Of the many publicly released studies on COVID-19, the most recent is Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences This clearly indicates that children’s brains age prematurely. The study says that the brains of girls aged 12 to 16 age on average by 4.2 years, compared to an average of 1.4 years for boys.
The study says that the brains of girls aged 12 to 16 age on average by 4.2 years, compared to an average of 1.4 years for boys.
This study is of greater importance for the future of the planet because premature aging of the brain is not a fact that can easily be ignored. As the study states, thinning of the cerebral cortex is responsible for premature aging. Cortical thinning is associated with potentially many health risks, such as: dementiaAlzheimer’s disease, depression as well as defect in emotional perception. Be that as it may, cortical thinning is a contemporary phenomenon that occurs as we age, especially as we mature. However, if it happens faster and also in some areas of the cerebral cortex, it is said to have negative effects on the individual.
Source: FII
Therefore, the unexpected and severe cortical thinning due to the COVID-19 pandemic has implications for adolescents that are undoubtedly a cause for concern. According to the studies, the exact impact of such a development cannot be predicted, but it is linked to learning difficulties and behavioral response problems.
Behavioral problems in teenagers due to the COVID-19 pandemic
The social restrictions imposed due to COVID-19 have had far-reaching repercussions, often leading to unexpected behavioral changes beyond those already predicted. For schoolgoers and students, the lack of peer interactions had a major impact.
Interactions with peers are an important factor for individual development at all stages of life. Due to school closures, they were denied social activities such as extracurricular and co-curricular activities to a greater extent. Beyond the academic aspects, students learn many other life coping skills every day in their schools or in a larger perspective in the outside world. Overall, a sum of physical, emotional, psychological and intellectual components were missing from their internal systems.
Switching from real to virtual classrooms was considered a less imaginative task.
Switching from real to virtual classrooms was considered a less imaginative task. The shift to new scenarios could not be taken seriously by most students and behavior control was a major problem as they are safe in their homes. Examples of this are the various news reports about indecent behavior of students, stranger intrusion through private lessons and suicides among young students.
Source: FII
Accordingly a study In a paper by Kaustav Chakraborty et al. According to a study conducted, children with an average age of 8 years were found to be hyperactive, irritable, anxious, defiant/disobedient and crying during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Their eating and sleeping habits also changed radically and one in four experienced feelings of anxiety and depression, according to the study in question.
Another behavioral problem resulting from premature aging of the cerebral cortex is difficulty in emotional perception, language comprehension, and facial expression recognition. A person perceives the emotional state of the people around him primarily through facial expressions and language understanding.
Likewise, errors in language comprehension can have a negative impact on intellectual abilities.
Therefore, the difficulty can inevitably lead to a failure to identify emotional states, affecting the entire communication process. Likewise, errors in language comprehension can have a negative impact on intellectual abilities. All of this inevitably indicates a change in the process of child development that could have serious implications for their future.
Learning difficulties in teenagers
One of the biggest detrimental effects of COVID-19 has been the numerous social restrictions they have faced. For young children and teenagers, interaction with their peers is more important than any learning. It leads to their physical, mental, psychological, social and linguistic development. The effect of peer groups on children and young people varies depending on gender.
Source: FII
For example, girls, especially adolescent girls, communicate a lot compared to their male counterparts. Through this mechanism they can mature mentally and develop emotionally. But for adolescent boys, physical activities with peers contribute to their physical and emotional maturation. This severely disrupted their most important opportunity to better understand and learn about life.
In addition, students were diagnosed with problems such as lack of engagement, lack of concentration and shortened memory span during the period. Additionally, their writing skills were also impaired, resulting in developmental delays in various dimensions. For example, a delay in the development of writing skills impacts gross motor skills, which in turn impacts the child’s language development. In fact, it is a sign of cognitive delay.
For example, a delay in the development of writing skills impacts gross motor skills, which in turn impacts the child’s language development. In fact, it is a sign of cognitive delay.
Nevertheless, it remains for developed scientific societies to investigate all this further in order to understand the often hidden problems. Furthermore, the impact of the COVID-19 vaccines on different age groups and its impact on their lives needs to be studied with due seriousness.
Although The Ministry of Health reported It was recently observed in Lok Sabha that there is no sufficient reason to establish a link between COVID-19 vaccines and the sudden heart attacks among teenagers, as the results of a foreign study more than show Increase by 25% in cardiac arrest. With the increasing number of messages Death among young peopleThis is a necessity for the common people who are forced to follow the medical instructions set by international organizations and governments.
Source: FII
As a suggestion for adolescents who have suffered premature brain aging, parents should take initiatives to understand their adolescents by letting them speak openly about their experiences. This could help identify the underlying issues they are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is the only readily available way out for them.