The Effect of Social Isolation on Adolescents During COVID-19
Abstract
My initial hypothesis was that adolescents may carry into adulthood the potential
residual
effects of social isolation on behavioral changes. To draw a holistic picture of the
situation at
hand, I went on a quest through different disciplines to test my hypothesis's credibility.
First, I
examined historical events by following adolescents who lived in similar circumstances.
I was
looking for helpful trajectories that can be implemented in the current situation
to detect any
common behavioral patterns. Unable to find a satisfying answer, I have come, through
this
research, to realize that the question I was asking is complicated and not readily
open to
historical comparison. By visiting the neurodevelopmental literature, I learned that
social
isolation could cause a hormonal and neurological imbalance that may shift from a
goal-oriented
to a habit-like behavior. Equipped with this knowledge, I ventured next into the world
of
psychology. I aimed to learn from human development theories and to draw a trajectory
of the
potential long-term damage on the cohort in question. With the abundance of information,
I
worked on testing and adapting my initial hypothesis. This took me also, inevitably,
into issues
related to the context where adolescents would normally reside for much of their day:
school. I
also realized that my interdisciplinary quest was missing a significant factor: social
media. I
started my research on social media expecting to confirm the negative effect of long
hours of
exposure to social media, only to be pulled into a complicated, potentially helpful,
and useful
virtual world that I barely knew. I realized that I could not apply my knowledge as
an adult to the
age group in question because, practically, many of them are living through the pandemic
in a
different world: the virtual world.
Type
Capstone projectDepartment
Graduate Liberal StudiesPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/24208Citation
Malki, Lana (2021). The Effect of Social Isolation on Adolescents During COVID-19. Capstone project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/24208.Collections
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