Very present on social networks, the war in Ukraine is causing a lot of anxiety among teenagers, who have contacted the Tel-Jeunes aid service by the dozens since the start of the Russian invasion ten days ago.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
“The situation in Ukraine seems to add a layer to the stress that young people are already experiencing” with a dragging pandemic and an increasingly worrying climate crisis, notes Myriam Day Asselin, head of expertise and innovation at Tel-Jeunes. “For many of them, war is the last straw. »
“Social media seems to play a central role in triggering anxiety about Ukraine,” says Ms.me Day Asselin. With TikTok, Facebook or YouTube, war has suddenly entered the lives of young people with its share of images and heartbreaking testimonies. And when everyone talks about it more at school, at home and on television, it can become unbearable for some teenagers.
Not easy, either, to decide between the true and the false in everything that appears on the screens and which can be very distressing.
Live videos during bombardments, rumors of massacres of soldiers or shots at Russian armored columns… Maryna Onyshchenko, 14, herself of Ukrainian origin, is wary of what she sees on her phone. “I’m not really sure that everything is accurate, because often people broadcast this to get attention. There are also more positive videos made by Ukrainians which are not really true, which are there to give them strength and courage. »
Maryna Onyshchenko’s paternal grandparents live in Zaporizhia, not far from the nuclear power plant which was bombed by the Russians on Thursday in southern Ukraine. “Nuclear worries me a lot. It can easily be something very dangerous for those who live there. I strongly believe in the strength of the Ukrainian army, but it’s scary. “In the circumstances, despite the anguish and uncertainties, the student of 3and secondary school at the Collège d’Anjou keeps a close eye on what is happening there, in particular through his parents, who follow the news very closely.
To protect yourself
Even if the teenagers who contact Tel-Jeunes generally do not have a family under the bombs, their distress is no less real. To appease it, the workers first seek to popularize what they are experiencing, then to give them the means to protect themselves from sources of stress. “Our job is to make them aware that their anxiety is normal, that all this information is difficult to manage. We will suggest to them, for example, to get away from the screens to play sports or take their minds off things with their friends,” explains Myriam Day Asselin.
Shocked by a flood of anxiety-provoking news, young people also turned to their teachers. Students of 5and secondary school of Jonathan St-Pierre, at the D’Iberville school in Rouyn-Noranda, needed benchmarks so as not to panic. “They wonder what will happen to them, if there will be atomic bombs, if it is the beginning of the Third World War. They receive a lot of information without context and they lack the tools to process it, ”explains the one who is known on YouTube as Jonathan the Prof.
PHOTO FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF JONATHAN LE PROF
Jonathan St-Pierre
“I have never seen my class want to listen to a lesson as much as the one we had in Contemporary World with Jonathan on this conflict,” says Trystan Dubé, 16. On social networks, he observes, there are “clearly people who want to panic you by making the situation worse”. Of course, the power of Russia and the risk of a skid concern him, but not to the point of fearing for his safety, adds the student who reassures himself with his readings. “It’s serious, what is happening, but we have to rationalize. I take the example of the Cold War. It was just that, nuclear threats. It’s kind of the same thing again…”
A student at the same school, 17-year-old Ryan Cowell saw the conflict as an opportunity to learn about Eastern Europe, a region he knew little about. He is more worried about the potential repercussions of the war, especially if China takes inspiration from Russia to invade Taiwan. “It’s really important to see what’s going on there with all the atrocities that China is committing,” says the man who avoids social networks to find out.
The war in Ukraine at least has the merit of interesting young people in what is happening elsewhere in the world, believes Jonathan St-Pierre. “It makes sense to make it an opportunity to learn. It is even for me a moral obligation. It allows them to put things into perspective and better understand, which reduces their anxiety, ”concludes the professor.
Three tips to reassure a teenager
1. Normalize the emotions experienced and do not trivialize worry. We can value a teenager’s empathy, tell him that we like him to be touched by what others are going through, that it’s normal. We can also validate the fact of talking about it, of not being alone with our emotions.
2. Ask the adolescent what he understands of the situation. This helps frame the conversation. We can also help him find reliable sources for information, while making him aware of the effects of an overabundance of information, especially on social media, among friends, etc. This overabundance can create anxiety, like a constantly activated alarm system.
3. Invite the adolescent to identify ways to reduce the stress or anxiety related to the situation: make more room for things and activities that can do him good. Identify their needs and help them meet them (moments of calm, sport or outdoor activity, games with family or friends, favorite pastime or release activity, for example).
Source: Tel-Jeunes