Lockdown is doing more harm than good to our youth

John Greene

The country’s GAA clubs — indeed most sports clubs — would love to officially open their gates and let young people in

March 28 2021 02:30 AM

Do you remember in the early days of lockdown, maybe around this time last year, when we were told that one of the upsides of families getting to spend more time together was that they could enjoy more home-cooked meals?

That may have been so for a while, but that buzz has long since worn off. The latest study of Ireland’s 12- and 22-year-olds says they are reporting symptoms of a “low mood”, eating less healthily and getting less exercise during the pandemic. Almost one-third of our 12-year-olds (29 per cent) are eating more junk food and sweets, and significantly more, 44 per cent, of the older age group are doing likewise. In both cases, it was more common with girls and young women.

Furthermore, young people are spending more time on their screens, more time talking to friends on the phone or online, and 38 per cent now spend less time engaged in any form of sport or exercise.

This paints a worrying picture of where young people are at after a year of lockdown and disruption to school, college and work. As the report, published by the ESRI, says: “The Covid-19 pandemic has been a life-changing period for all children and young people in Ireland.”

The young people in this survey have for some time been taking part in the ground-breaking study known as ‘Growing Up In Ireland’, which has been charting the progress of two separate groups of boys and girls born in 1998 and 2008. This latest study, which involves around 6,000 people, was conducted online last December.

Both of the age groups were at key junctures in their life journey when it struck. “The older cohort, aged about 22 years, had just taken — or were about to take — early steps in their careers. Many of the younger cohort, aged about 12 years, were due to make the transition from primary to secondary school.” In fact, half of the 22-year-olds who had a job before Covid either lost it, or were temporarily laid off.

On Friday, the same day that the research findings came into the public domain, the lead story in the Irish Independent carried the headline, ‘Easter play dates warning as toll on children revealed’.

According to the story, “health officials have warned there has been a four- to six-fold increase in the number of children under the age of 12 being referred to GPs for testing.”

This had led, according to Professor Philip Nolan, to “a 40-50 per cent increase in cases in young children since February”. (Which is it? 40 per cent? 50 per cent? Somewhere in between? That’s a pretty wide margin.)

HSE public health specialist Dr Miriam Owens said: “Moving between play dates, Patrick’s Day parties, Mother’s Day parties, where more and more people are coming together, they are not appreciating the risk of onward transmission. Children are reflecting what is in the community. What seems to be happening in the community is people are getting tired and feel it is time to relax. But it is not time to relax.”

The problem is that the longer this goes on, the greater the other dangers we are exposing our children and young people to. Ennui and lack of purpose is setting in. That in turn feeds bad habits — poor diet, sedentary lifestyle and health and well-being issues.

Those of us who are banging on about the need to get children and young people back outdoors are not blind to the threat of Covid, but a balance needs to be struck. Not everybody is interested in sport, but we should be promoting and allowing exercise in groups. Families by and large know how to police themselves, especially when there is someone vulnerable in the home they are desperate to protect. But three-quarters of 12-year-olds reported that no one in their household is vulnerable, while 57 per cent of 22-year-olds reported the same.

There’s a sense that more young people are moving around than before. You can see them gathering at sports fields, or in parks, or even just on the streets. The country’s GAA clubs — indeed most sports clubs — would love to officially open their gates and let them in.

Professor Nolan was keen to say the return to school has not been a major factor in the rise in testing of children, so what’s to fear from properly-supervised outdoor activity?

Michael McDowell, writing in The Irish Times last week, honed in on this problem. “It seems as if we are engaged in some attitudinal mind game in which any concession on lockdown, however rational, is seen as damaging to the collective will to combat the pandemic. That collective will cannot persist in the absence of hope and confidence. Ronan Glynn, the deputy chief medical officer, is a decent man. But he has got to understand that the younger and less vulnerable simply will not remain cooped up in Level 5 for much longer.”

I agree with Dr Owens, it is not time to relax.