As taxing as the social distancing measures implemented in response to the coronavirus may be for adults, just imagine how strange and jarring this new world must be for children.
Those of preschool age are in a stage where socio-emotional development is of significant importance, and they are being forced to navigate this period without any social contact with their peers.
Older children have to cancel all of their activities — swimming, gymnastics, Little League, music lessons, and so forth.
Instead of classrooms, they are stuck at home, trying to keep up with distance learning projects through video conferencing.
They are also binging on a healthy diet of TV and video games as parents scramble to get work done from home.
Graduations, dances, school carnivals, and all sporting events have been canceled.
And when it comes to college-aged students, they have been forced to live at home and forgo the typical college experience altogether.
Baby boomers are the only defined generation by the U.S. Census Bureau, meant to refer to the period of a sustained increase in births between 1946 and 1964. In other cases, sociologists typically divide generations up by thinking about their shared formative experiences. For instance, the Greatest Generation was a term designed to refer to those who navigated the Great Depression and then fought in World War II.
When the dust settles on the ongoing pandemic, it may be time to consider defining the Coronavirus Generation. That is, those whose formative years were substantially shaped by the spread of the coronavirus and the response to it.
It’s possible, of course, that the current set of circumstances could turn out to be a blip. The number of coronavirus cases in the United States could continue to decline. Restrictions could start to ease up next month, and warmer temperatures could help slow the spread in the summer. Some of the ongoing clinical trials could prove successful, allowing people to head into the fall armed with drugs that could, at a minimum, significantly reduce the severity of COVID-19 and make it manageable.
But it’s possible that what we’re going through now will be much more sustained; that early attempts at finding drug therapies will fail; and that the vaccine will take longer than hoped to test and mass produce. It’s possible, if not likely, that as governments start to ease up restrictions, there will be certain experiences that people will still avoid.
Just imagine toddlers in crowded playspaces or older children in venues such as Chuck E. Cheese. Even in good times, these places are like germ factories. It’s unlikely that parents are going to want to send their children there as long as the coronavirus is floating around without a vaccine.
There will be children who won’t be going to Disney World or baseball games or crowded birthday parties. And it may be a while before many children can see their grandparents.
Some colleges are already considering not returning to on-campus classes in the fall. Absent a medical breakthrough, it’s hard to imagine the college experience quite being the same — six people sharing a dorm room, communal bathrooms, crowded dining halls, packed parties, and so forth.
Instead, today’s children, and even college students, are going to be getting used to spending a lot more time with their parents and siblings, rather than among their own peers. They are going to find it normal to leave the house wearing masks and to keep distance when they pass people on the street.
The long-term psychological effects of these changes are hard to predict. Older children and those in college have had their personalities largely shaped before the onset of the coronavirus. Toddlers and younger children could lose a developmentally significant window to learn how to navigate social relationships. School-age children will have had less in-person instruction than those who came before them.
There could also end up being some unexpected positive effects from the current hiatus from social interactions. Perhaps the younger generation will learn to be more resilient and independent than previous generations, for instance. Or perhaps the social deprivation will lead them to seek out community more once the crisis is over.
Whatever the longer-term effects are, however, it should be pretty clear that the development of the younger generation will be significantly shaped by the coronavirus experience.
