Abstract
Background: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound influence on the mental health and well-being of individuals across the globe. Emotional competence, defined as one's ability to recognize, understand, and manage their emotions, has been found linked with mental health problems (e.g., depression and anxiety) in previous studies. However, there is limited knowledge about the direction of the association between these factors among populations exposed to COVID-19. This study examined the possible mediation relationships between depression, anxiety, emotional competence, and COVID-19 exposure among Chinese adolescents.Methods: Responses from 7,958 Chinese adolescents who had previously taken part in a two-wave study before (December 23, 2019–January 13, 2020) and during COVID-19 (June 16, 2020–July 8, 2020) were analyzed (51.67% males, mean age = 11.74, SD = 2.15). Structural equation modeling with three covariates (i.e., age, gender, and ethnicity) was used to test the longitudinal mediation relationships between COVID-19 exposure and depression, anxiety via emotional competence.Results: Results indicated that the prevalence of depression (38.67 to 36.74%) and anxiety (13.02 to 12.77%) decreased from Time 1 to Time 2. The T2 emotional competence significantly mediated the relationship between T2 COVID-19 exposure and T2 anxiety (indirect effect [95% CI] = 0.011 [0.004–0.019], p < 0.05). T2 emotional competence also significantly mediated the relationship between T2 COVID-19 exposure and T2 depression (indirect effect [95% CI] = 0.013 [0.005–0.022], p < 0.05). The results indicated that T2 emotional competence had a significant and negative influence on T2 anxiety (β = −0.266, SE = 0.005, p < 0.001), and T2 depression (β = −0.326, SE = 0.029, p < 0.001).Conclusions: This longitudinal research study demonstrated the crucial role of emotional competence in influencing the severity of long-term mental health problems, and suggested that emotional competence interventions can be conducted to improve mental well-being among Chinese adolescents exposed to COVID-19.
Highlights
Adolescence is a vulnerable dangerous period during which mental disorders can present themselves, increasing the risk of life-long mental illnesses [1]
This study emphasized emotional competence as an effective alleviative variable against long-term depression and anxiety among Chinese adolescents exposed to COVID-19 pandemic, the negative association between psychological distress and emotional competence, and the long-term influence of improving emotional competence on mental health when exposed to COVID-19 pandemic
The study found a decreased trend of mental disorders, including depression and anxiety among Chinese adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, which suggests that more variables, such as family support [51], receiving social information [63], and quarantine policies [10], need to be explored for releasing the mental burden among the population exposed to COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
Adolescence is a vulnerable dangerous period during which mental disorders (e.g., depression and anxiety) can present themselves, increasing the risk of life-long mental illnesses [1]. A meta-analysis of 17,894 subjects found that the prevalence of depression and anxiety was 17.96 and 13.99%, respectively, in Chinese adolescents [4]. An Australian research with a sample of 1,299 adolescents identified that the prevalence of depression and anxiety was 14.2 and 13.2%, respectively [6]. Most previous research has applied a cross-sectional design to explore mental health and its correlates among adolescents, but this approach lacks the long-term tracking of mental health status among the target population [7, 8]. It is crucial to explore the potential mechanisms associated with long-term mental disorders and related factors among adolescents. This study examined the possible mediation relationships between depression, anxiety, emotional competence, and COVID-19 exposure among Chinese adolescents
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