Being a young adult is already a tough task! Ask our younglings, and they will tell you they have so much to learn and discover, but so little time to fit all of it in! in such a crucial age of life, where children are not only absorbing knowledge from the world but also learning about themselves and where their curiosity will lead them. The pandemic has taught us a lot, including how young adults are affected by crises. Some arguments lead to the conclusion that crises at this stage in life may affect students for decades to come. At SciKnowTech, we care about our students, not only till they are with us, but long after they are gone. As an educational institute first, and as curious minds of science second, we are interested in finding out how students are affected by the unexpected challenges that they come across. As the popular saying goes, A crisis is an opportunity to ride the dangerous wind.
Many of us experience life’s inevitable derailments. lost a loved one, got divorced, or got laid off. According to a study, the age we are when tragedy occurs can have a significant impact on how we react to it, with young adults being particularly prone to having their plans for the future disrupted. Young adults can feel unmoored and increasingly anxious about the future when the rites of passage that define the shift from infancy to adulthood are delayed or missed, which is partly to blame for this cohort’s declining well-being throughout the current pandemic.
Young adulthood has not traditionally been viewed by researchers as being significantly different from other adult years. The human brain, however, continues to develop long into one’s 20s, as is now generally known. The once straight path from living at home with one’s parents to moving out and starting one’s own family has been long and much more jagged as a result of social and economic developments in recent generations. And for years, the already unstable combination has seen a rise in unpredictability due to climate change. In other words, the pandemic just accelerated previously observed tendencies rather than causing a mental health crisis among young adults.
Ages 18 to 25 are a period of intense worldview, career, and romantic discovery. In a groundbreaking article published by American Psychologist in 2000, psychologist Jeffrey Arnett of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, argued that this age range should be viewed as a distinct developmental stage, separate from either being a child or a fully-fledged adult. “Emerging adulthood is a time of life when many different directions remain possible when little about the future has been decided for certain when the scope of independent exploration of life’s possibilities is greater for most people than it will be at any other period of the life course.”
What happens when the “scope of independent exploration of life’s potential” is halted or even limited? is a question that the pandemic has compelled us to consider.
The information to date points to the possibility of severe consequences for young adults. The personalities in this group haven’t grown older, but rather younger. In general, those under 30 have gotten more neurotic, less conscientious, and more pleasant. Young persons have also described increased degrees of anxiety, depression, and loneliness during the pandemic compared to older adults.
Sometimes, when something happens at a crucial time of development, it creates a snowball effect that affects the individual’s personality permanently. It has been a while, but as parents and educators, we must really pay attention to the impacts our young ones have faced during these times, and how much they have changed since the pandemic. While some may easily overcome it, it is the select few who will need our hand to keep moving as healthy students and individuals. may we always be capable of providing the required resources, and boosting these students toward whatever path their curious minds will take them. Godspeed!