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Sandeep Mehta
Independent Researcher
Gujarat, India
Abstract
The abrupt transition from traditional, in‑person schooling to entirely online learning environments has fundamentally reshaped adolescents’ daily experiences, social interactions, and support systems. This shift has been driven by public health imperatives that necessitated school closures, creating a wholly digital educational milieu for high school students. While virtual platforms have ensured academic continuity, they have simultaneously constrained opportunities for spontaneous peer engagement, structured extracurricular activities, and informal mentorship from teachers—all critical components of adolescent psychosocial development. Such restrictions have potential mental health repercussions, particularly in the domains of anxiety and depression. This study examines how sustained online isolation contributes to the onset and exacerbation of anxiety and depression symptoms among high school students. We administered standardized psychological scales (GAD‑7 and PHQ‑9) alongside bespoke questions assessing daily screen time, frequency of virtual social contact, perceived academic stress, and availability of coping resources to 200 students aged 14–18 from four urban schools operating in a fully online modality for at least six months. Our analysis employs descriptive statistics to characterize symptom prevalence, correlation analyses to identify significant associations between isolation‑related factors and mental health outcomes, and subgroup comparisons to explore demographic differentials (e.g., gender, grade level). Results reveal that 62% of respondents report moderate to severe anxiety, and 47% exhibit moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Higher screen time (mean = 8.5 hours/day) and lower virtual social engagement (mean = 2.3 peer interactions/week) show strong correlations with increased symptom severity (p < .01).
Keywords
Anxiety, Depression, High School Students, Online Isolation, Virtual Learning
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