1.22 “Bored, Lonely, Sad, Thankful, Tired”: A Qualitative Report of Adolescents’ Feelings at the End of the First COVID-19 School Year

Objectives

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated youths' mental health, which was already in crisis. The transition from in-school to virtual platforms increased student stress, anxiety, depression, and fatigue, and contributed to social isolation and loneliness. Despite negativity commonly associated with COVID-19, youth have also reported positive feelings and experiences that are associated with resilience. In this project, we describe a qualitative analysis of adolescent feelings at the end of the first school year during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A youth-designed comprehensive mental health survey was administered at high schools in San Antonio, Texas, between May and June 2021. The question “In up to 5 words, how would you describe how the COVID-19 pandemic has made you feel?” was qualitatively analyzed. Two youth collaborators and 1 academic co-investigator conducted sentiment analysis with 3 categories: negative, positive, and neutral. Descriptive analysis detailed the findings. A word cloud of the 50 most frequently mentioned feelings, with text size corresponding with the frequency of the word, was generated.

Results

Of 120 participants, 97% answered this question, generating 498 words and 134 unique words. The 5 most frequent feelings were “bored” (60%), “lonely” (47%), “sad” (25%), “thankful” (22%), and “tired” (22%). Negative words were 68% of all words, while 28% were deemed positive, and 4% were deemed neutral. More than half (52%) of respondents listed ≥4 negative words, 11% listed ≥4 positive feelings, and 37% listed a mix of 2 or 3 positive, negative, and/or neutral words.

Conclusions

Most participants had largely negative feelings about COVID-19 by the end of the first school year affected by the pandemic. Adolescents expressed feelings of boredom and loneliness. Loneliness has been associated with increased risk of mental illness, sleep issues, and stress. However, many adolescents also expressed mixed feelings and a few adolescents experienced mostly positive feelings about the pandemic. Gratitude, which was the most frequently reported positive feeling, has been associated with resilience and the promotion of mental wellness. Future interventions should explore gratitude in experiences of COVID-19 and youth mental health.

ADOL, STRESS, DS