Health Habits and Attitudes of Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted adolescent health and lifestyle. This study aims to evaluate adolescent physical and mental health, and behaviors and attitudes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed 7-12th grade students in one Los Angeles independent suburban school (Sierra Canyon School) and statistically analyzed their anonymous responses. Two surveys were administered: Survey 1 in March 2021, when the school had been closed to in-person learning for approximately one year, and Survey 2 in May 2021, about six weeks after the school had opened for voluntary in-person learning. Survey 2 included additional demographic questions about gender, political affiliation, and race/ethnicity to evaluate the correlation between these factors and COVID-related issues. We used linear regression to analyze correlations between parameters characterizing various aspects of health habits, attitudes, and behaviors and evaluated the statistical significance of the differences using Student’s t-test. We were most interested in analyzing the impact of school reopening by comparing the data in Survey 1 to Survey 2. The main result is that the return to in-school learning had a pronounced positive effect not only on the education quality but also on a number of various aspects of adolescent health and behavior. In addition, the survey showed interesting, sometimes surprising, correlations between distinct parameters, for example, the effects of gender on physical and mental health; or political affiliation on COVID-related attitudes and behavior.