Children are facing significant back to school anxiety challenges right now with a COVID-19 variant that greatly affects them and their return to in-person classes. However, the heightened anxiety due to Covid is not limited to children, and can affect parents and siblings in the home as well.

To parents- while you focus on keeping your child physically healthy, make sure to consider their mental health, and yours, as well.

Back to School and Covid – The Perfect Storm

Recent weeks have seen an increase in the number of children across the country diagnosed with the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant, and that trend is true in the Jacksonville area as well. Children under 12-years-old are not yet eligible to be vaccinated, which can leave them more susceptible to catching COVID-19. Both Wolfson Children’s Hospital and Nemours Children’s Health in Jacksonville recently joined a national push to call for more to be done to protect children from COVID-19.

This is all happening as children have been returning to school. While local school districts have implemented COVID-19 protocols- including a mask mandate in Duval County– they have still faced significant challenges in limiting COVID-19 exposure. Several schools in Duval County have already had to shift temporarily to online learning because of positive cases and contact tracing.

These two factors combined mean children and parents alike are under an incredible amount of back to school anxiety.

  • Inability to form a routine: With shifting between in-person and online learning, having teachers and classmates calling out sick, changes in after-school activities, and more, children and parents may not be able to easily form daily routines. Children generally thrive with a routine, so lacking one can make them feel less stable and secure, and more anxious. It can also mean it’s more difficult for a parent to handle their family’s needs and work schedule.
  • Health concerns: Families may have seen their friends fall ill, or they may have a health condition that leaves them more vulnerable to severe illness. This can add significant stress, especially when the child is put in a crowded school environment.
  • School-related stress: Back-to-school time always means children diving into new subjects and, potentially, schoolwork struggles. While this isn’t necessarily made worse by the COVID-19 overlay, it is still a very real source of anxiety, frustration, or even embarrassment for children.

Prior to this recent COVID-19 spike, the number of youth mental health emergencies saw a drastic rise in Jacksonville, and it’s likely that has continued. The special complication with children is that they may not understand why they feel a certain way. Parents should look for signs of excessive back to school stress like changes in mood, sleep, or eating habits; disengagement from family and activities; poor performance in school; extreme fear or worry; feeling sad, hopeless, or irritable; trouble focusing; physical signs of stress like stomach aches and headaches; and similar signs. Any of those could show your child is struggling with their mental health.

Children’s Anxiety and Mental Health Support

For parents, helping your children starts with helping yourself. You can’t fully support your child’s mental health needs if you are not supporting your own.

Some strategies could help both parents and children alike:

  • Build routines where possible: While you may not be able to control whether your child is taking classes in person on any given day, you can build routines elsewhere, like homework time, bedtime, and/or what the family does with the time after dinner.
  • Promote self-care as a family: You likely think of self-care as yoga or meditation, and those are activities you can absolutely engage in. But at its core, self-care means caring for yourself. So if you find joy in a family game night, break out the charades! Or if the weather is nice, go for regular walks as a family. This will allow everyone in your family time to focus on each other.
  • Check-in: Children and adults both may need help sorting through what they’re feeling. For yourself, stay attuned to how you are feeling and, if you are shifting toward negative feelings, try to trace that to why. For your children, ask them questions about how they’re feeling, what happened during their day, and similar things, so you can potentially help them piece together what they’re experiencing. Being proactive about this means a chance to help your children before they’re in serious trouble.
  • Build self-esteem: High self-esteem is a great protective factor when it comes to mental health. If your child is a great artist, get them some nice new supplies. If they’re enjoying baseball, go outside and play catch. If they have a great voice, consider a singing coach or attending a play at a local theatre. Helping your child grow in the spaces they are good at and enjoy will help build their self-esteem.

If you do these things alongside your child and are willing to speak openly about why it’s important to focus on mental health, you could also help remove any negative stigma that traditionally surrounds mental health support. An open dialogue with your family about mental health can be a truly life-saving line of communication.

It’s also important to trust the experts. Medically, look to the CDC and similar experts about the steps to take to protect your family against COVID-19. For your mental health, Jax Therapy Network has a searchable database of local, licensed therapists and counselors covering a wide range of mental health needs.

Ready to find your therapist? Search the Jax Therapy Network and find help with back to school anxiety through counseling services near you with therapy from professional therapists and mental health counseling support.