Mass mental health crisis looms for young Chinese after 3 years of lockdowns, home school and zero-Covid

Many parents feel helpless about their child’s well-being because of the damage of isolation, and yet many Covid-19 curbs remain

Internet friends instead of real-life relationships, online dependence, depression and anxiety are among the pandemic effects noted by researchers

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Chinese students, who were already subjected to intense academic pressure before the pandemic, have had to endure long lockdowns and periods of social isolation because of their government’s strict zero-Covid measures. Photo: AFP

Jane Caiin BeijingandHe Huifengin Guangdong

Published: 10:00pm, 5 Dec 2022Updated: 11:49pm, 5 Dec 2022

While major Chinese cities have started phasing out draconian Covid-19 measures, the consequences of prolonged social isolation on mental health are unfolding in hundreds of millions of students across the nation.

In the longest school closures among major countries, mainland China’s students were made to sit in front of computers at home and listen to live or recorded lessons for their schooling, an expedient option taken by local governments seeking to prevent transmission on campuses.

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Over the past three years, the duration of screen-based teaching may have varied – from weeks to months, or even semesters, depending on the frequency of local Covid-19 flare-ups – but attending online class from home is a shared experience among children and adolescents in mainland China. And various research projects have found they are paying a heavy price for the Covid-related social isolation.

Mason Wang, a first-year student at a Beijing college, spent nearly half of his three years of high school at home doing online classes, resulting in little time with his classmates.

“We call each other internet friends,” Wang said. “Now I can hardly match the faces with names of classmates.”

Isolated from his peers, he spent most of his spare time playing computer games and ended up scoring poorly in the university entrance exams.

Mass mental health crisis looms for young Chinese after 3 years of lockdowns, home school and zero-Covid

Many parents feel helpless about their child’s well-being because of the damage of isolation, and yet many Covid-19 curbs remain Internet friends instead of real-life relationships, online dependence, depression and anxiety are among the pandemic effects noted by researchers

Many parents feel helpless about their child’s well-being because of the damage of isolation, and yet many Covid-19 curbs remain

Internet friends instead of real-life relationships, online dependence, depression and anxiety are among the pandemic effects noted by researchers