A national survey of young people taken during 2021's pandemic and lockdowns has found more than 70 per cent of students whose studies were disrupted faced high psychological distress.
About 20,000 survey responses were collected between April and August in 2021, when the Delta wave of COVID-19 was in full swing, causing New South Wales and Victoria to lock down in response.
The report from Orygen and Mission Australia found young people in Victoria and New South Wales were the most affected.
Orygen senior research fellow Kate Filia said many of the results were unsurprising.
"As mental health researchers, we expect different population groups to have worse effects of different circumstances," she said.
While the researchers did expect significantly worse mental health outcomes, they were surprised by how widely young people were affected by disruptions.
"Over 70 per cent of young people who reported their education was impacted also reported high psychological distress and I think that's a really important thing to focus on, the benefits of school apart from education," Dr Filia said.
The report recommended more funding for specialist youth mental health services, such as headspace, to help students catch up.
Effects ongoing
By week four of classes at her new school, Millie Collins was thrust into the thick of the pandemic.
Along with the challenge of trying to make new friends and get acquainted with her teachers, the now-16-year-old had to grapple with remote learning.
"I was completely online, so I really struggled with basic communication with my teachers and peers," she said.
Limited internet access added another layer of difficulty to her school and social life in regional Victoria.
"I'd be on calls with my friends, or school calls, and it would be just cutting in and out. It was so difficult. I just wasn't able to have what other people had," she said.
While face-to-face learning is once again the norm, Millie said she felt as though she was playing catch up for two years' worth of disruptions.
"Two years is a really long time. It does still impact me now," she said.
"A lot of conversations were missed, so it's still really difficult."
Millie's experience is one shared by thousands of other young cisgender and gender diverse people across Australia.
Gender divides mental health
The report also found transgender and gender diverse young people were twice as likely as males to report a negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health.
"For gender diverse young people, being removed from their social supports and being stuck at home with family members who maybe aren't as supportive of their gender diversity as their peer groups may have been leading to increases in difficulties in other areas of their lives, mental health, friendships, housing," Dr Filia said.
Dr Filia suggested some gendered behaviours may be responsible for the difference in reported mental health.
But she also acknowledged that young males were more likely to be insulated from the worse effects of the pandemic.
"There are some very protective factors for males, where they do tend to not face as much discrimination or challenge as perhaps gender diverse young people do," she said.
Looking forward
Despite the struggles she has faced, student Millie said she was now working with her peers to make up for lost time — both in the classroom and outside of school hours.
"I'm jam-packing every single day and every single weekend with as many things as I can, just to feel like I can do enough in my teenage years and make up all those teenage years I've lost," she said.
