Mental health changes in different adolescent groups from before to throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Psychiatry Research, vol. 353, pp. 116733

Abstract

• The COVID-19 pandemic did not have a strong effect on Flemish youth mental health. • Depression increased early in the pandemic but declined post-pandemic. • Girls and LGBTQIA+ youth reported consistently higher levels of mental health symptoms. • Younger adolescents showed a greater increase in symptoms early in the pandemic. • Pandemic-related restrictions and duration had no significant impact on mental health trends. The COVID-19 pandemic is assumed to have had a large impact on the mental health of adolescents. Finding out for which youth the mental health impact was largest is imperative for strengthening future crisis responses. In this study, we aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of different sociodemographic groups of general population adolescents in Flanders, Belgium. Adolescents were tested for the SIGMA study, at W1 ( n =1913; mean age=13.8; 63.1% female; 2018/2019); W2 ( n =272; mean age=16.5; 74.0% female; 2020); and W3 ( n =227; mean age=18.0; 78.4% female; 2022/2023). Subclinical anxiety, depression, psychoticism, and general psychopathology were measured with the Brief Symptom Inventory-53. Multilevel linear regression models with imputed data sets were used to test cross-wave differences in each psychopathology outcome (controlling for age-related increases), effects of time since the beginning of the pandemic and stringency of pandemic-related measures, and effects of several sociodemographic predictors on levels and changes in psychopathology (from W1 to W2, and from W1 to W3). Results indicated limited overall early increases in psychopathology (only for depression from W1 to W2), and some decreases in psychopathology levels from W1 to W3 (for anxiety and general psychopathology). Girls and those reporting same-gender attraction reported higher levels of nearly all symptoms. Although most youth in this sample were resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic, some groups consistently showed high psychopathology levels. Attention is still needed for groups that were at risk before the pandemic, notably, LGTBQIA+ youth.

Authors 11

1. Robin Achterhof corresponding

   Erasmus University Rotterdam · KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Electronic address: achterhof@essb.eur.nl

2. Olivia J Kirtley

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

3. Ginette Lafit

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Research Group on Quantitative Psychology and Individual Differences, Faculty of Psychology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

4. Zeynep Akcaoglu

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

5. Eva Bamps

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

6. Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

7. Noëmi Hagemann

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Flemish Scientific Society for Youth Health Care (VWVJ), Leuven, Belgium

8. Karlijn Susanna Francisca Maria Hermans Aachen

   Leiden University · KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Strategy and Academic Affairs, Administration and Central Services, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

9. Julie J. Janssens

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

10. Aleksandra Lecei

    KU Leuven

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Clinical Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

11. Inez Myin‐Germeys

    KU Leuven

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium