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CV NEWS FEED // Stress associated with COVID-19 restrictions during the 2020 pandemic affected the maturity of young teens’ brains, especially among girls, according to research cited by American Heritage Girls.
The organization, which operates as a Christian alternative to Girl Scouts and serves to provide personal and spiritual growth opportunities for Christian girls, said in an emailed news release that new research discovered that “accelerated maturation” of the teen brain during the pandemic affected girls more than boys.
“On average, the young females’ brains aged 4.2 years faster than normal, while male brains were accelerated by 1.4 years,” American Heritage Girls (AHG) stated. “The researchers believe that accelerated brain aging is directly related to the stress associated with the restrictive measures taken to slow COVID-19’s spread.”
AHG founder and executive director Patti Garibay credited loneliness and mental health struggles spurred by the pandemic’s restrictions with the damage, adding in the news release:
Many families had to watch helplessly as their daughters began to deteriorate under the oppressive regulations throughout the pandemic. Even though we have returned to a sense of normalcy, the mental, emotional and spiritual scars are still evident.
Garibay proposed AHG as a solution to help young girls heal from the pandemic, suggesting one of the organization’s free resources: “A Raising Godly Girls Guide to Resilience.”
“American Heritage Girls is ready and able to help parents help their daughters through this crazy time,” Garibay stated in the news release, adding:
Even though it might feel scary and isolating to consider the aftereffects of the pandemic, there is hope on the horizon. My prayer at this time of anxiety and distress is for each of us to dismiss fear and shine as a beacon of certainty that we serve a sovereign God who is the creator of the earth, the Prince of Peace, the Alpha and the Omega, and the Lord that provides.
