Educators from across the country tell us that student anxiety, depression and sadness are more prevalent than ever before. Survey data suggest that mental health issues are significant drivers of current elevated levels of chronic absence. To help us better understand the connection between mental health issues and absenteeism, we asked renowned child psychiatrist, Pamela Cantor, M.D., Co-Founder and CEO, The Human Potential L.A.B., to share her insights as well as reflect upon what schools and community partners can do to address this troubling situation. Read Dr. Cantor’s answers below.
Attendance Works: What do you think is the connection between the current high levels of chronic absence and anxiety?
Dr. Cantor: If children are not attending school right now in large numbers, the question we need to be asking is why? And it’s not going to be just one answer. The answer that I hear a lot about is that kids are anxious. And that may be, but anxious is a symptom. And the question that follows that is, anxious about what? So one of the things that I often think about is the degree to which we’ve under-recognized the impact of the Covid pandemic on kids and the fact that they were driven to discover and find connection using social media, using the Internet.
And on the one hand, it was life saving for some kids to not be so separated from their world, but on another, it’s actually caused kids to feel uncomfortable in physical surroundings with other kids. It’s much more anxiety provoking to actually be dealing with somebody in real life than to be dealing with them and communicating with them online. I mean, sometimes I think to myself, when I go to restaurants and I see a family of four having dinner together and they’re all on their phones, I think to myself, what is going on here? That the thing that we know produces connection, attachment, love, and so many wonderful things that are uniquely human. Those are the things that are being missed.
And kids are much much more anxious when they’re accustomed to relating to the world through their phones than relating to the world through human contact.
Attendance Works: You describe anxiety as a symptom. How can we better understand why students are feeling anxious?
Dr. Cantor: Anxious is a symptom. When I practiced as a psychiatrist, if somebody was anxious, you would still have to ask the follow-on question, why are they anxious? And you wouldn’t assume that all of your patients were ever anxious for the same sets of reasons. So I’m a little concerned right now that we don’t know why our kids are feeling the way they’re feeling. There are probably more than a few things that would make young people anxious today, depending on their age, depending on their life circumstances, depending on whether they are in homes where their parents are anxious. So I think what I’d like to see us do is actually talk to young people more and more and more and more and get a richer picture of actually what’s causing this and what is making them anxious.
We’re not going to find that it’s only one reason.
Attendance Works: There are things schools can do that are typically within their control to address student anxiety and improve attendance. What is your advice to schools with high levels of chronic absence?
Dr. Cantor: If a school is having a very significant absenteeism problem, I would be wanting the school to do two things. I would want them first to understand their young people as individuals and to do everything that they can to tease apart the reasons that kids are staying home as opposed to coming to school. I wouldn’t assume, as we often do, that the problem is in the kids. The problem can also be in schools. Schools are places that frighten some kids. Kids are afraid of being bullied, they’re afraid of being teased. They can protect themselves from bullying and teasing online in different ways that they can’t when they’re in person. Do kids believe that a school will adequately protect them from those kinds of experiences? If they don’t, they’re not going to come to school. So there’s a moment here for self-examination by schools and for deeply understanding that kids are different. Their reasons are not going to be the same and we need to know as much as possible about what their experience is and then try to solve it together. Kids and schools.