Exploring the longer-term impacts of Covid-19 on young people’s mental health

From March to June 2020, and in November 2020, the UK went in to lockdown in an effort to help slow the spread of Coronavirus. The lockdown has disrupted the lives and daily routines of everyone; however, the lockdown is likely to have a particular impact on young people with the closure of schools and disruption to social relationships. It is currently unknown what impacts this will have on the mental health and wellbeing of young people, and what can be done to provide support to them on their return to school.

This project aims to understand the longer-term impacts of Covid-19 on young people’s mental health and wellbeing, self-harm, social connectivity, social media activity and whether there are particular groups of young people who have poorer mental health and wellbeing after lockdown. The study also aims to explore young people’s and school staff’s experiences of lockdown as well as their experiences returning to school after lockdown, and what additional support is required to support students settle back into school and return to full time education.

The project aims to share findings with schools, local authorities and relevant mental health charities to help them to target help and support to those young people who need this. The study also hopes to identify what forms of social connection or types of social media activity may be helpful to young people when isolated from others.