Longitudinal Changes in Swiss Adolescent's Mental Health Outcomes from before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Beyhan Ertanir,Wassilis Kassis,Ariana Garrote

doi:10.3390/ijerph182312734

Abstract

This study aimed to explore changes in mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, home, and school stress) from before the first COVID-19 wave (autumn 2019) to the later stages of the same wave (autumn 2020) in a sample of N = 377 Swiss adolescents (Mage = 12.67; 47% female). It also examined whether students’ background characteristics (gender, immigrant status, and socio-economic status) and reported COVID-19 burden predicted students’ outcomes and their intra-individual changes. Student’s mental health, background characteristics, and reported COVID-19 burden were assessed by a self-report questionnaire. The intra-individual changes in students’ scores were estimated using random coefficients regression analyses, with time points nested in individuals. To examine the effects of predictors (students’ background characteristics and the reported COVID-19 burden) on outcome scores and changes, multilevel intercepts-and-slopes-as-outcomes models were used. The results showed that the expected impact of the pandemic on mental health was not noticeable in the later stages of the first COVID-19 wave. Only two effects were demonstrated in terms of intra-individual changes, namely, an effect of gender on depression and anxiety symptoms and an effect of reported COVID-19 burden on school stress symptoms. Moreover, few associations were found for selected predictors and students’ mean level scores, averaged across both time points.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused enormous challenges with wide-reaching effects on the lives of young people, who are affected by the pandemic
To investigate whether the mental health scores changed within one year (RQ1), we regressed the scores on the dichotomous time variable at the intra-individual level in multilevel random coefficients regression analyses
The main findings can be summarized as follows: First, without controlling for any students’ background characteristics, a significant increase in mental health outcomes could only be observed in the depression and home stress scores, but there were no significant changes in other mental health domains

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused enormous challenges with wide-reaching effects on the lives of young people, who are affected by the pandemic. Estimated that school closures affected about 900 million children and adolescents, or approximately half of the estimated global student population. During the earlier stages of the first wave (March 2020–May 2020), families from all over the world were confronted with contact restrictions, distancing measures as well as closures of schools and leisure facilities (e.g., cinemas, theaters, and sporting arenas). Research on past epidemics that involved quarantines demonstrated that restriction measures can be associated with deteriorations in mental health [2]. The economy was in a global recession in 2020 [3], meaning more and more families were forced to face economic consequences through unemployment and a decrease in income. It was shown that economic pressure resulting from economic recession can favor family conflicts and tensions [4]. Using a sample of Greek adolescents, Motti-Stefanidi and Asendorpf [5] confirmed that the

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