Maintaining Relationships, Reducing Anxiety During Remote Learning

Americans find ourselves in a stressful time. Multiple crises are hitting us at once, including the pandemic, the resulting economic hardship, and the impact of systemic racism. As the months pass, isolation, fear of infection, sickness, and economic insecurity have taken their toll. Many of us are experiencing increased anxiety and depression. Teachers and school leaders are tackling an impossible task—to figure out how to provide quality education to students while weighing the infection risk and shifting between distance, in-person, and hybrid models of learning. To say many of us are experiencing whiplash, disorientation, and anxiety is an understatement.

Our students feel it, too. Typically, nationwide, one in three teenagers experiences clinically significant anxiety in their lifetime (Merikangas et al., 2010). During a pandemic that heavily effects everyday life, it's probable that children and teens' levels of anxiety are even higher—and the possibility of subsequent trauma greater. Not all students will experience the pandemic crisis as a trauma, but some will. And students with preexisting mental health issues are at greater risk when school is disrupted, because early treatment is important and many services for struggling kids are typically provided in school.