"Normally, the teenage years are when children separate from their parents, but today’s teens have been spending more time at home than ever. Adolescents who yearn to rove in packs found themselves confined to their bedrooms, chatting with the pixelated images on their screens.

“The group that is suffering the most” in terms of isolation “is 13- to 24-year-olds,” said Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, president and medical director of the Child Mind Institute in New York City. “They are losing out on being allowed to separate. They’re having trouble with their academic goals....

A certain level of autonomy is important to teens, but in the pandemic they’ve had very little, said Jennifer Kolari, author of “Connected Parenting: How to Raise a Great Kid” and a San Diego-based therapist and parenting coach who leads workshops on parenting. For some, during the pandemic, their own messy bedrooms may be the only place they feel they have control"