Abstract
Spanish children were locked down for 72 days due to COVID-19, causing severe disruption to their normal life. The threat posed by COVID-19 continues and clinicians, administrators, and families need to know the life conditions associated with more psychological problems to modify them and minimize their effect on mental health. The goal was to study the life conditions of adolescents during lockdown and their association with psychological problems. A total of 226 parents of 117 girls and 109 boys (mean age: 13.9; Standard deviation: 0.28) from the community that were participants in a longitudinal study answered an online questionnaire about life conditions during lockdown and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Stepwise regression analyses controlling by previous reports of SDQ were performed. Conduct, peer, prosocial, and total problems scores increased after lockdown. After adjusting for previous measures of psychopathology, worse adolescents’ mental health during COVID-19 lockdown was associated with unhealthy activities, worsening of the relationships with others, and dysfunctional parenting style. It seems important to mitigate psychological stress in a situation of isolation due to a state of emergency by keeping the adolescent active and maintaining their daily habits and routines in a non-conflictive atmosphere and give support to parents.
Highlights
The World Health Organization declared the emergency situation caused by COVID-19 as a global pandemic on 11 March 2020
Regarding the physical environment, during lockdown the adolescents stayed in one household (>80 m2 ), with a mean of four people and had access to the Internet and media entertainment platforms
Over a third of the families were affected in some way by COVID-19 or feared contagion
Summary
The World Health Organization declared the emergency situation caused by COVID-19 as a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. In Spain, the nationwide state of emergency due to COVID-19 was pronounced on 14 March. The government declared lockdown, starting on 13 March and ending on 24 May. The state of emergency lasted for 72 days, during which time the population’s free circulation was limited, non-essential services/activities were cancelled, and face-to-face school teaching was suspended with the aim of minimizing the transmission of the virus through social contact. Informal get-togethers with family and friends were permitted if a physical distance was maintained, while organized meetings and physical contact remained prohibited. After the lockdown period ended, several phases of de-escalation of the restrictive measures were applied until the state of emergency ended on 21 June and the population returned
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