Loneliness, anxiety and loss: The pandemic’s terrible toll on kids

Psychologists and pediatricians say they have seen a rise in parental abuse and neglect, substance abuse, mental illness and divorce during the pandemic. Past research has shown that exposure to a high number of such issues—what researchers call Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs—can cause changes in how children’s bodies respond to stress, which can damage the developing brain and immune system. Exposure is associated with an increased risk of a host of health issues, including depression, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and substance abuse. “We see intimate-partner violence increasing, mental health deteriorating among adults, increasing substance dependence. All of those means increasing ACEs for the kids,” says Nadine Burke Harris, a pediatrician and surgeon general of California. Scientists have found that children with post-traumatic stress symptoms tied to these experiences have changes in brain regions including the amygdala, which is involved in processing fear and emotion; the hippocampus, which is involved in memory; and the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in executive functioning. Such brain changes, if “not attended to, are going to lead to emotional, cognitive, academic issues later in life,” says Victor G. Carrion, director of the Early Life Stress and Resilience Program at Stanford University.