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One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

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Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

#91
post #22
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My take is that this is a counterpoint to the dominant media narrative that covid and lockdowns have been detrimental to the mental heath of nearly every child, usually based on anecdata. So even if these results _aren't_ different from a normal year, that's still meaningful. I think this is the crux of their conclusions too: > While the pandemic has undoubtedly had negative consequences for many, it is important to…

It's not all "anecdata"... > In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, ED visits for suspected suicide attempts began to increase among adolescents aged 12–17 years, especially girls. During February 21–March 20, 2021, suspected suicide attempt ED visits were 50.6% higher among girls aged 12–17 years than during the same period in 2019 . [1] - https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7024e1.htm

Alternative headline: "Lockdowns allowed for parents to keep a closer eye on their kids, as a result more suicide attempts were discovered during the pandemic. Actual suicides (and thus attempts) did not increase significantly."

According to this source[1] 1 in 25 attempts in youth are successful vs 1 in 4 for the elderly. That leaves a lot of room for "attempt discovery" statistics to meaningfully change without any meaningful changes in actual attempts.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_attempt#:~:text=The%20....

Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

#92
The only reason I suffered during lockdown was due to an abusive and gaslighting as hell roommate who actually permanently drove me away from ever having roommates again.

Otherwise, it would have kicked ass. Working from home these days, it’s honestly not that different from what it would have been anyway, had I not been dealing with them.

I truly love the ability to, I dunno; even just listen to my vinyl over my nice sound system while I work - or just making food at home…all the benefits and none of the loss whatsoever.

Post pandemic life as a WFH coder kicks ass! :)

Especially since I make some decent money on the side as a rapper/producer - it works so well. If I have an idea at work, I can easily take 30min off and capture it with my full studio rig. It’s amazing.

Zero loss. Full gain. Literally, there’s the drag of my life before the pandemic, and the joy of it after. I’d say during, too - but that asshole of an ex roommate really killed 2020 for me, sadly. :(

Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

#93

So 1 in 3 felt happier, 1 in 3 felt more depressed, and the remaining 1 in 3 felt no major change. Sounds pretty much like a normal (gaussian) distribution, or basically a non-story. Guessing if they measured satisfaction on a scale, the majority were clustered near the "no major change" camp, as with any gaussian curve. As we already know, it turns out humans can adapt to things. By phrasing the headline result as "…

> basically a non-story

I don't think this is the right take. I'm going to venture that pretty much everyone thinks it was worse than this, i.e. that the more young people feel depressed than happier in COVID-time. So "it's actually on average no effect" very much is a "story", it would be something that would cause most people to substantially update their models of the world if it's sound research.

Put differently, "1 in 3 young people felt depressed" isn't surprising at all. "1 in 3 young people felt happier" is surprising to me. So leading with the surprising bit makes sense for a lede.

All of this is meta-level, I have no opinion on the object-level validity of the research.

Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

#94
> The highest proportions of students who reported improved mental wellbeing were among those who were in school every day (39%) and most days (35%), while the highest proportion of students who reported worse wellbeing were those who attended just once or twice (39%).

So, the students least affected by the lockdown were happy during the lockdown? I am not sure what to conclude here.

Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

#95

So 1 in 3 felt happier, 1 in 3 felt more depressed, and the remaining 1 in 3 felt no major change. Sounds pretty much like a normal (gaussian) distribution, or basically a non-story. Guessing if they measured satisfaction on a scale, the majority were clustered near the "no major change" camp, as with any gaussian curve. As we already know, it turns out humans can adapt to things. By phrasing the headline result as "…

> So 1 in 3 felt happier, 1 in 3 felt more depressed, and the remaining 1 in 3 felt no major change. > > Sounds pretty much like a normal (gaussian) distribution, or basically a non-story.

For a Gaussian, I would have expected 1 felt worse, 6 felt the same and 1 felt better. The current numbers sound more like an uniform distribution.

Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

#96

What a stupid claim. Based on useless self reported data. Also their “data” is two years old: > More than 17,000 students took part in the June/July 2020 survey, during the tail end of the first national lockdown Think the young people might report feeling different now?

The 'first national lockdown' is key I think - the first one was fairly novel, you got a break from school/work in some cases, more time with the kids, you felt safe. It was (for me at least) the second and third that really hurt mentally, because you wondered when it was ever going to end.

Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

#97

So 1 in 3 felt happier, 1 in 3 felt more depressed, and the remaining 1 in 3 felt no major change. Sounds pretty much like a normal (gaussian) distribution, or basically a non-story. Guessing if they measured satisfaction on a scale, the majority were clustered near the "no major change" camp, as with any gaussian curve. As we already know, it turns out humans can adapt to things. By phrasing the headline result as "…

> Sounds pretty much like a normal (gaussian) distribution, or basically a non-story

If your interpretation is correct, this means the center of the distribution is "neutral", but it could very well not be the case.

Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get out of your parent's house. It is a daily reminder that you're not facing life as an adult. You don't have to go to an expensive city. If you are working remotely you can live anywhere and there are plenty of nice towns where housing is not insanely expensive. Join a gym or a hiking club or something to get some physical activity and maybe meet some new friends.

> Get out of your parent's house. It is a daily reminder that you're not facing life as an adult. This is complete bullshit. The US is a major outlier with the societal pressure to move out for no reason. It makes for poor family connections, wasted money, and wasted resources in general.

> no reason

This is a big unsubstantiated implication you're making here. I fully agree that there is too much of a stigma against living with your family (though it has improved greatly over the past 10-15 years as surveys and studies have shown) in the US, but there are plenty of reasons to move out. This is coming from someone, by the way, who was convinced he'd probably stay living at home until 30 or so. I eventually realized it was holding me back.

Yes, relatively speaking it cost me a ton of money to move out, and I'd have a lot more money in my bank account right now if I didn't, but none of that money was "wasted" and I wouldn't trade it for anything or go back and do anything differently. It changed my life immensely, for the better.

I love my family but no matter how much you love your family there is no substitute for having a place of your own, and having the freedom and privacy to live your life the way you like, operate under your own rules, under your preferred hours, etc.

You're right, many people may not be ready for this, and living at home shouldn't be stigmatized - though perhaps parents who don't raise children who are ready for it at a reasonable age should be stigmatized.

But if you are gainfully employed and you have no mental conditions where being out on your own should affect you negatively, then moving out on your own is absolutely not a waste.

> The US is a major outlier

Despite all of its faults, the US is a major outlier in most things... in a good way. Yes, other countries and cultures may do things differently. But the individualist nature of the US is the keystone to what makes this country so great.

Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

#99
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political leaders wanted kids back in school so parents would be able to go back to work. At the same time, the media starts talking about how bad homeschooling and lockdowns are for kids mental health and suicide rates. Consent is always manufactured.

When kids can’t socialize normally with their peers that is negative for them, even if kids themselves might be happy with “homeschooling” and socializing with their friends in Minecraft. We have been spared most lockdown measures, but had a couple of weeks with closed schools and day care. It was fine, but my kids were absolutely better of once schools and day care opened again.

I'm not following why if kids are happy homeschooling and socializing on popular video games is a negative?

If your kids experienced only a month of lockdowns returning to normal would make them absolutely better. What if you were locked down for the entire year or two? After your kids get use to it they might respond differently.

Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

#100

So 1 in 3 felt happier, 1 in 3 felt more depressed, and the remaining 1 in 3 felt no major change. Sounds pretty much like a normal (gaussian) distribution, or basically a non-story. Guessing if they measured satisfaction on a scale, the majority were clustered near the "no major change" camp, as with any gaussian curve. As we already know, it turns out humans can adapt to things. By phrasing the headline result as "…

>Textbook clickbait. LOL I'd say your post is!
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