COVID-19: Forced Social Isolation and Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health

Abstract

The pandemic’s forced social isolation has caused unique symptoms to emerge in adolescents. In an especially vulnerable stage of development, teenagers require more socialization with their peers. Researchers evaluated the effect of physical isolation on adolescents’ mental health through surveys and animal modeling. The main findings of the surveys included a decline in general mental health over the pandemic. Through the animal-based experimental model, researchers found that social isolation correlated with anxiety-related, depression-like, and addictive behaviors. The added factor of social media should also be considered when applying these experimental conclusions to the real world. In this literature review, The effects of social deprivation on adolescent development and mental health and Mental Health and the COVID-19 Pandemic were considered. Some limitations of these studies include lack of surveying diverse demographics, and not modeling outside factors such as social media.