Ditch the masks in class? Not right away for some teens

Although they are no longer required to wear the mask when seated in class, some teenagers decide to keep it on anyway. It may seem surprising… but it’s not that much, say experts, who see it as the effect of habit and, for some teenagers, the reflection of anxiety. Explanations.

Catherine Handfield
The Press

The easing has been in effect in Quebec since the return from spring break. Elementary and secondary students continue to receive a blue mask every morning (they must put it on in common areas and when traveling), but when they are at their desks, in class, their faces can finally breathe.

That’s the theory. In practice, students continue to wear the mask, was able to see The Press by getting information from teenagers, parents and school workers. In some circles, it is part of the students who keep it. In others, it is the vast majority of them who continue to follow their hidden courses.

When Noshin Haque looks around her in class, she mostly sees students wearing masks. As a general rule, she keeps it too.

“I’m so used to seeing everyone wearing it that if I take it off, I feel like I’m doing something wrong,” explains the smiling 16-year-old Lavalloise. Sometimes, too, I prefer to keep it on because I’m afraid that people around me will think that I think I’m better than everyone else if I take it off. »

“Me, I take it off when I remember that I can take it off,” says her friend Lauren Elhage, 16, who is also resolutely used to wearing it.

Lauren and Noshin were 14 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. A few months later, in October 2020, the mask became compulsory in secondary school. Last year, Noshin recalls, teenagers only showed their faces at dinnertime. It was almost weird, she said, to see herself without a mask.

When told that she is beautiful, Noshin Haque comes to wonder if we would still compliment her if she did not have a mask. “Are they telling me that because they just see my eyes?” “, she wonders, immediately reassured by Lauren.

For Lauren Elhage, wearing a mask goes beyond habit.

“We can see in the mask the possibility of being judged on fewer things”, sums up Lauren, who gives the example of acne, or even curved noses like hers. “There are people who hate their noses. They prefer to keep their mask on because of that. »

social norm

Researcher Roxane de la Sablonnière is interested in the effects of social changes on individuals. And like all the other speakers in this article, she is not surprised that the wearing of masks persists in secondary schools.

She sees it first and foremost as a matter of social norms. The norm can be expected to change from masking, but that change may not happen overnight, she says. “Young people are used to wearing it, and they are used to seeing others do it,” notes M^me of the Sablonniere, that we should not underestimate the influence that others have on us.

For two years we have had the impression that a risk hovers above our heads, and that by not wearing a mask, we put ourselves at risk and we put others at risk, notes psychologist Nathalie Parent . “Nothing has really been done to defuse this learning,” she notes.

Psychologist Cynthia Turcotte also believes that the “mask = security” link is still very strong in the minds of teenagers. Especially since the virus is still circulating, and experts believe it is still early to stop covering your face in public.

And their friendships of the last year and a half, the teenagers have forged them… with a mask. “It’s as if the brain decodes that in relation, it takes a mask”, summarizes the psychologist Nathalie Parent.

Discomfort and anxiety

Laura Sweeney, who lives on the South Shore of Montreal, keeps her mask on all day at school. And when she says “all day”, it’s all day : she wears for physical education class, sometimes even while eating.

“It’s more comfortable that way,” sums up the 14-year-old girl. I don’t have to worry about people staring at me. »

Young people sometimes grow their hair out to hide their faces. Others only wear clothes that fully cover their body. Psychologist Nathalie Parent would not be surprised if, for some teenagers prone to social anxiety, the mask also becomes a way of hiding.

And in adolescence, she says, a small detail or imperfection can take up a lot of space, can even come to define them.

Sooner or later, teenagers will have to take off their masks. Sooner or later, they will have to reveal their faces to the other students. “And the more we run away from what is scary, the more anxiety sets in,” recalls Nathalie Parent, who advises parents of teenagers who do not remove their masks in class to raise the issue with them, without judgment, to understand what motivates them.

But for the moment, it is still very early to draw the conclusion that a teenager who still wears the mask in class suffers from an anxiety disorder. The epidemiological situation remains uncertain (after all, teachers still wear it!) and the feeling of belonging can explain many things, recalls psychologist Cynthia Turcotte. At the private high school attended by Montrealer Flavie Boudreau, students still wear masks in class … but under their noses, notes the 15-year-old girl.

“When the mask is no longer compulsory for the general public, we may see a change in the norm”, predicts researcher Roxane de la Sablonnière. And even a girl like Laura Sweeney, who can’t see the day when she’ll feel comfortable without a mask, could quickly decide to take it off if she’s the only one wearing it.