The disruption in school routines caused by the pandemic has taken an academic toll on children.
State education officials in Massachusetts last month reported that MCAS test scores fell.
Now, there is information showing how the upheaval affected children’s mental health.
The Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts has released preliminary data from its Springfield Youth Health Survey.
WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill spoke with Kathleen Szegda, the institute’s Director of Community Research and Evaluation.
It's such an important question Paul, and at least in in the work that I'm involved with, through the Public Health Institute, we are part of the youth Springfield youth Health Survey initiative. And as part of those efforts, we conduct a survey in Springfield public schools about use, use health, so and it includes mental health every other year. And so we did do it this past spring, I should mention that this is a collaborative effort. It also includes Springfield, public schools, Springfield, Health and Human Services, Gandara Center, and then also MLK family services. And we really focused in this time, because when we thought about implementing the survey, students were remote, they were actually getting ready to go back to in person. And we just, were aware that there were numerous mental health struggles among students and trying to get a better sense and understand to inform efforts to address it. And so when we did the survey this spring, we ask them questions about mental health, as we have done in previous years around anxiety and depression. And what we learned is, not surprisingly, that students were continuing to experience anxiety, also depressive symptoms, it's hard. And when we think about this, because in the surveys just to really fully understand To what extent because the service disruptions and in learning, and then also that students were remote, we had a lower number of percent of students who participated. But even still, amongst those who did, so say 50% participation in eighth grade, and lower in 10th, and 12, there were still higher rates of symptoms reported, reported. And so this is students who reported feeling so sad or hopeless, almost every day for two weeks in the last year, and for eighth grade students, about 41% reported, and they're also for 10th and 12, about 45%. And though it's it's not all the students, we suspect this is an underestimate, because those students who were experiencing numerous challenges probably were underrepresented, it was harder for them to participate in the survey. So it, it was we shared this with the school and with our planning team, we have the survey results posted on our website. And so are trying to think about the, what we've learned and how to continue to address.
Paul Tuthill
Is the sample size too small to draw any firm conclusions?
Kathleen Szegda
That's a fantastic question. So I wouldn't say it's too small. I mean, I think it is subject to me, again, it's more about who's answering the questions. So if we think about the kids who were in school, so actively participating remotely had the ability and space to actually participate, then it's more so that also it's likely an underestimate. And that's what we assume, in general, when, when we do these surveys is that the students who aren't participating, because we always have a subset of the population who aren't participating, that those are going to be students who are experiencing more challenges and are at higher risk. So I don't I wouldn't say it's too small, like, it's not necessarily like the 10th and 12th grade representative of the student population. But when we think about who's responding to the survey, it's likely to be those students who are more engaged to are participating, and it's the students who are struggling more who aren't.
Paul Tuthill
You said that the results have been shared, obviously, publicly. It's on it's on the website, and also with the schools. Are there any any action steps that are being recommended based on based on the findings?
Kathleen Szegda
Yeah, so again, really important to think about is in we try to think about when we, you know, are collecting data, gathering information, what actions we can do. And so, as I mentioned, there's a few things we're working, as in partnership with the Springfield public schools. They're part of this, the planning team for this and The Springfield youth Health Survey initiative and so they've taken the data and are sharing it with their internally with principals and others. And as a way to help them understand where their students are at but also looking at it in a way to better understand are there things that can be done? So for example, in the data, when they were looking at it, they also looked at, there's a question about whether students feel like they have an adult in the school that they can speak to, or talk to. And the rates of the depressive symptoms that are students who report the depressive symptom was higher amongst students who didn't feel like they had an adult they could talk to you. So whether that's a question of being aware that there are adults or comfort or there being one, it couldn't be any of those things, but bringing some of these things back to their internal teams so that they can talk about how they can can do this.
