The Social Impact of COVID-19 on Young Adults

The Social Impact of COVID-19 on Young Adults

This article relates to A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe

COVID-19 has had an immense impact on people of all ages, in all stages of life, and in all parts of the world. Mahogany L. Browne's novel A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe focuses on the various effects on young people's lives, which are still being felt and studied today. Along with the widespread death, disability, and legitimate fear caused by the virus itself, these include the sometimes more complex social effects of isolation and lockdown.

One big impact that COVID had on young people was on their mental health. According to a 2024 report, anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents doubled globally after the first year of the pandemic. In the US in 2021, 41% of young people reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless, and the rates of suicidal ideation increased by 20%. Trips to the emergency room for mental health issues also increased during shelter-in-place in the US. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasized the negative impact that lockdown and homeschooling had on young people's physical and mental health, a result of spending less time outdoors, having little social interaction, and having fewer opportunities to exercise.

Also, with the closure of schools, extracurricular activities, and social services, many young people also lost access to vital support networks. Those facing abuse or neglect were forced to spend more time at home, with little or no reprieve from difficult living conditions.

The disruption to traditional, in-school education also had a negative effect on reading comprehension and other skills. In the US, students still are lagging behind and haven't made up the "lost ground" of the remote learning years. In the National Assessment of Educational Progress from early 2024—one of the best gauges of the nation's academic progress—the average math score for eighth grade students was unchanged from 2022, while reading scores fell two points for both fourth graders and eighth graders. One-third of eighth grade students scored below "basic" in reading, the most ever in the history of the test.

The divide between higher- and lower-performing students has also grown wider than ever. Students with the highest scores outperformed the students who were in their same grade two years prior, signaling that they had made up some ground lost during the pandemic. But the lowest performers are scoring even lower and falling further behind. The strongest evidence is in the eighth grade math scores: The scores of the top 10% of students increased by three points, but the scores of the lowest 10% decreased by six points.

Young people from minority groups were hit particularly hard. In addition to being more vulnerable to the direct dangers posed by COVID-19, Black, Latino, and multiracial homes were found to be impacted by financial strain, job insecurity, childcare issues, emotional distress, and loss of sleep to a greater extent than those in white households. This inequality is highlighted in Browne's novel.

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This article relates to A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe. It first ran in the March 12, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.