The kids are not all right. Is social media to blame?
Kian Mirzaei, 16, has a theory about what’s gone wrong after a new survey showed student well-being has plunged across public schools.
The share of students deemed to be thriving fell by 13 to 26 per cent at the Waterloo Region District School Board between 2018 and 2022, depending on age. Well-being is defined as a summary of a student’s mental and physical health.
The share of students deemed to have low well-being increased by eight to 21 per cent, according to a survey of almost 27,000 students.
An obvious source of distress is the COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted schooling from 2020 onward.
Mirzaei points also to social media platforms, arguing that well-being is falling as younger students gain access to smartphones.
“Being online makes you less productive. It makes you feel like you’re comparing yourself to others more. And there’s a bunch of different ways that you can get bullied, you can get attacked, you can get demonized,” he said.
“I think there’s so many dangers of being online and having a phone, too. You have to be really responsible with it and make sure you’re staying safe. And I think that being online for some of these kids has put them at danger and at risk of bullying, comparing themselves to others, and other harms.”
Clinical psychologist Dillon Browne agrees that social media creates risks for some youths.
“We have enough studies now that show that there are small but significant correlations between the amount of child engagement with social media and things like anxiety and depression,” said Browne, a University of Waterloo professor who specializes in child mental health.
“I am of the camp that believes that we have a bit of a problem here.”
Student well-being is influenced by many factors and “perhaps social media has had an impact,” said Dana Liebermann, research
manager at the public school board.
In the 2022 survey, students were asked how often they have been bullied by someone using a “computer or text messages to exclude, threaten, embarrass you, or to hurt your feelings.”
Three per cent of students across Grades 4 to 12 reported being cyberbullied many times a week. About 17 to 20 per cent of students reported being cyberbullied one time or more, depending on age.
Younger students in Grades 4 to 8 reported being cyberbullied slightly more often.
The survey found that 80 per cent of students in Grades 7-8 hang out daily with friends online, using a smartphone, tablet or computer, from 3 to 6 p.m. after school and before dinner. This compares to 76 per cent of high school students and 71 per cent of students in Grades 4 to 6.
Several Ontario boards outside Waterloo Region recently launched lawsuits against owners of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, claiming the platforms hurt students by interfering with their mental health and learning. Claims have not been tested in court.
Blaming social media “is a very sensitive topic for everyone, because we all have some degree of guilt around our reliance on this new media,” said Browne, who is not involved in the board’s survey.
“However, one other thing I’ll say is that while not all children necessarily struggle with the current digital society that we live in, some do. And of those, some do greatly.”
Mirzaei recently completed a new well-being survey that launched this month and concludes April 26. The online survey is voluntary for students from Grades 4 to 12.
It asks them to respond to questions around their optimism, happiness, self-esteem, absence of sadness, and general health. It measures how they feel about peer relationships, nutrition and sleep, after-school activities and adult relationships.
Here are key take-aways about the survey which was created out of the University of British Columbia.
Why collect well-being data?
“Achievement and well-being do truly go hand-in-hand,” said Scott Miller, associate director of education at the public school board. If schools can improve how students feel about themselves, better learning is likely to follow.
More than half of high school students and almost half of middle school students have a low level of well-being, the 2022 survey found. More than a third of elementary students in Grades 4-6 have a low level of well-being.
Well-being varies widely by school. For example, elementary students at Laurelwood Public School in Waterloo and J.W. Gerth Public School in Kitchener are two times more likely to thrive than students at Crestview Public School and J.F. Carmichael Public School, both in Kitchener. High school students at Elmira District Secondary School in Woolwich Township are almost three times more likely to thrive than students at Eastwood Collegiate Institute, in Kitchener.
An analysis shows schools tend to have a higher level of well-being where there are fewer educational challenges attributed to poverty, parent education, and single parents. The Ministry of Education measures these educational challenges for each school.
What are schools doing to improve student well-being?
The board points to wraparound supports inside and outside of classrooms.
As examples, the board coaches Black students to graduate, supports Indigenous students and others, and helps to feed students. It provides professional learning for teachers and staff, supports student clubs and “well-being teams.” It hosts events and activities such as “Black Brilliance,” Islamic heritage, student wellness, and “listening forums.”
Mirzaei wants the board to direct its resources to schools that show lower well-being. “They need to allocate resources to those schools that are having some problems, instead of equalizing everything,” he said.
The board says schools are given their results on well-being and may use them to plan improvements.
“That might be a series of lesson plans focusing on a particular issue,” Leibermann said. “That might be having workshops hosted at the school by either central office staff or experts from the community, to address issues related to student mental health and well-being. It all depends on what each school’s data tells them.”
Here’s an example. The survey asks students if there are adults at their school who are important to them, and if there is a teacher who cares about them, listens to them, and believes they will be a success. Experts know students feel better about their themselves if they have better relationships with adults.
A school could take steps meant to build stronger relations between students and staff, which could help more students thrive and encourage higher achievement.
What about lower well-being in Cambridge?
‘‘ They need to allocate resources to those schools that are having some problems, instead of equalizing everything.
Lower well-being among Cambridge youths has been consistently shown in surveys by the public school board and by a social planning agency called the Child and Youth Planning Table.
“Specifically to Cambridge, there is and we recognize that there is an increased need,” Miller said. He said when the board allocates resources, it often looks at individual schools and schools that are near each other in neighbourhoods and communities.
The board’s 2022 survey shows 24 per cent of Cambridge students are thriving across Grades 4 to 12. This compares to 26 to 30 per cent of students who are thriving in other municipalities.
Lower well-being in Cambridge likely connects to factors such as housing, economic stress, the cost of living, and employment, said Browne.
“Should schools be responding to that? I think, certainly,” he said. “At the same time, a lot of what’s driving that effect is outside of the mandate of the school board.”
KIAN MIRZAEI HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT