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How Isolating in Quarantine Has Been Detrimental To Our Body Image

Since March, states across the country have imposed shelter-in-place requirements, asking citizens to stay at home as much as possible in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus. While a necessary precaution, the sad reality is that doing this creates an environment in which mental health disorders can thrive, especially those related to body image and disordered eating. A study conducted at San Diego State University and Florida State University found that in April, one in four Americans met criteria that would classify them as suffering with “serious mental distress.” That’s eight times as many as in 2018. A different study from wellbeings.org and PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs found that of 1,000 people interviewed between the ages of 16 and 19, more than half said that the pandemic has made their mental health either much worse or somewhat worse.

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Seventeen

How do teenagers feel about this very strange school year?

As schools across the country resume, parents and educators are debating the relative merits of at-home and in-class learning. But what do the students themselves think? Our Student Reporting Labs program teamed up with Detroit Public Television for a series of video diaries to document this very unusual school year as it unfolds. Here are students’ perspectives, in their own words.

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PBS NewsHour