Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented stress to young people. Despite recent speculative suggestions of poorer mental health in young people in India since the start of the pandemic, there have been no systematic efforts to measure these. Here we report on the content of worries of Indian adolescents and identify groups of young people who may be particularly vulnerable to negative emotions along with reporting on the impact of coronavirus on their lives. Three-hundred-and-ten young people from North India (51% male, 12–18 years) reported on their personal experiences of being infected by the coronavirus, the impact of the pandemic and its' restrictions across life domains, their top worries, social restrictions, and levels of negative affect and anhedonia. Findings showed that most participants had no personal experience (97.41%) or knew anyone (82.58%) with COVID-19, yet endorsed moderate-to-severe impact of COVID-19 on their academics, social life, and work. These impacts in turn associated with negative affect. Participants' top worries focused on academic attainments, social and recreational activities, and physical health. More females than males worried about academic attainment and physical health while more males worried about social and recreational activities. Thus, Indian adolescents report significant impact of the pandemic on various aspects of their life and are particularly worried about academic attainments, social and recreational activities and physical health. These findings call for a need to ensure provisions and access to digital education and medical care.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching consequences on the physical and mental health of individuals as well as the health of economies across the globe
Item-level data for personal experiences and knowledge of close others with COVID-19 infections are presented in Table 1 for all participants; and males and females separately
Most young people had not personally experienced or known someone with the coronavirus infection. Of those who did report knowing someone infected with COVID19, just under half (49.09%) reported that the affected person they knew had recovered from the infection, 12.73% reported that the person was still recovering, 14.54% reported that the known person was hospitalized, while 25.45% participants reported that the affected person passed away
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching consequences on the physical and mental health of individuals as well as the health of economies across the globe. Measuring early signs of mental health challenges such as worries and negative emotions in young people is an urgent priority for researchers [13, 14] as well as policy-makers, including identifying those most vulnerable to mental health difficulties. While this information is crucial for both high- and low-income countries, countries with lower resources dedicated to mental health may benefit more from early forecasts of these needs. Our data can signpost emerging, potentially costly mental health problems post-pandemic
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