The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we relate to one another and our children. It forced parents and children together in ways that are both helpful and potentially harmful. For young children and even adolescents, studies before the pandemic showed that parents spent 90 minutes per day with their children on average—not enough to create a strong and secure attachment. COVID-19 definitely brought children and parents back together in a positive manner, from sharing more meals to more parent-child play time between Zoom calls to adolescents getting to watch movies or go for long walks with their parents.
But for every silver lining, there is also a dark cloud. The dark cloud in this case is the difficulty some parents and young people are facing in separating as they go back to school, work, or return to or begin college. This has contributed to an already challenging mental health crisis for teens and young adults, who did not get to practice the separation and distancing between themselves and their parents while at home, something that is critical for a healthy transition to living on one’s own. In particular, the pandemic exacerbated anxiety and depression in college students, an age group that already had high rates of mental health issues. College campus mental health services are overwhelmed with waitlists, and it is not uncommon for struggling students to have to wait weeks before getting to speak to a therapist.
