During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world implemented restrictive measures -; such as stay-at-home orders and school closures -; to mitigate the spread of the respiratory illness. It's been well-documented that this disruption of daily routines and social activities had a negative impact on the mental health of adolescents. Adolescence, the period of transition between childhood and adulthood, is marked by dramatic changes in emotional, behavioral and social development.
It's also a time when a sense of self-identity, self-confidence and self-control are developed. The pandemic reduced social interaction for teenagers and led to documented reports of anxiety, depression and stress, especially for girls. New research from the University of Washington, published online Sept.
9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found the pandemic also resulted in unusually accelerated brain maturation in adolescents. This maturation was more pronounced in girls. When measured in terms of the number of years of accelerated brain development, the mean acceleration was 4.
2 years in females and 1.4 years in males. We think of the COVID-19 pandemic as a health crisis, but we know that it produced other profound changes in our lives, especially for teenagers.
" Patricia Kuhl, senior author and co-director, UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) Brain maturation is measured by the thickness of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of tissue in the brain.