Diminished Adolescent Social Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
School closures and social distancing measures during the pandemic have disrupted young people’s daily routines and social relationships. We explored patterns of change in adolescent mental health and tested the relationship between pre-pandemic levels of school and peer connectedness and changes in mental health and well-being between the first lockdown and the return to school. This is a secondary analysis of a longitudinal 3-wave panel survey. The study sample included 603 students (aged 13–14) in 17 secondary schools across south-west England. Students completed a survey pre-pandemic (October 2019), during lockdown (May 2020) and shortly after returning to school (October 2020). Multilevel models, with random effects, were conducted for anxiety, depression and well-being outcomes with school and peer connectedness as predictor variables. Symptoms of anxiety decreased from pre-pandemic to during the first UK lockdown and increased on the return to school; anxious symptoms decreas...
Well-Being Perception during COVID-19 Pandemic in Healthy Adolescents: From the Avatar Study
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic provided an extraordinary and naturalistic context to observe young people’s psychosocial profiles and to study how a condition of environmental deprivation and lack of direct social contact, affects the well-being and health status of adolescents. The study explored whether the COVID-19 outbreak changes, in the short term, the acute well-being perception in adolescents, as measured by a Personalized Well-Being Index (PWBI) and the four components affecting health (i.e., lifestyle habits, social context, emotional status, mental skills), in a sample of early adolescent students. Data from 10 schools were collected on 1019 adolescents (males 48.3%, mean age 12.53 ± 1.25 y). Measurements were obtained at two time points, in September/October 2019, (baseline condition, BC) as part of the “A new purpose for promotion and eVAluation of healTh and well-being Among healthy teenageRs” (AVATAR) project and during the Italian Lockdown Phase (mid–late April 2020, LP), wit...
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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every element of adolescent life worldwide, including Indonesia. This study intended to examine how adolescents' loneliness and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic are affected by their family relationships and online friendships. This study collects data using an online questionnaire. The Mental Health Continuum-Short Form, the UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3, the Brief Family Relationship Scale, and the Online Friendship Scale were used to collect the data. Two hundred ninety-two students aged 12-18 participated in data gathering in Jakarta, Indonesia, between March and April 2021. Descriptive, correlation and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses were conducted using SPSS 25.0 and LISREL 8.80. This research revealed that family relationships and online friendships had a negative effect on loneliness. Family relationships favorably impact adolescent mental health, but loneliness negatively impacts it. Furthermore, family relation...
Loneliness, social relationships, and mental health in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic
Journal of Affective Disorders, 2021
Loneliness is a common experience in adolescence and is related to a range of mental health problems. Such feelings may have been increased by social distancing measures introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to investigate the effect of loneliness, social contact, and parent relationships on adolescent mental health during lockdown in the UK. Young people aged 11-16 years (n = 894) completed measures of loneliness, social contact, parent-adolescent relationships, and mental health difficulties during the first 11 weeks of lockdown and one-month later (n = 443). We examined cross-sectional associations and longitudinal relationships between loneliness, social contact, and parent relationships and subsequent mental health. Adolescents who reported higher loneliness had significantly higher symptoms of mental health difficulties during lockdown. We found that adolescents who had closer relationships with their parents reported significantly less severe symptoms of mental health difficulties and lower levels of loneliness. We also found that adolescents who spent more time texting others reported higher symptoms of mental health difficulties. Our hypothesis that loneliness would predict poorer mental health one month later was not supported. Time spent texting others at baseline was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity at follow-up, and closeness to parents was significantly associated with lower psychological distress at follow-up. We conclude that while loneliness was associated with greater mental health difficulties at baseline, it did not predict increased mental health difficulties one month later. Moreover, existing mental health problems significantly predicted later increased mental health difficulties, thereby highlighting the importance of continuing support for vulnerable people.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
This work studied self-reports from adolescents on how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed their behaviors, relationships, mood, and victimization. Data collection was conducted between September 2020 and February 2021 in five countries (Sweden, the USA, Serbia, Morocco, and Vietnam). In total, 5114 high school students (aged 15 to 19 years, 61.8% females) responded to our electronic survey. A substantial proportion of students reported decreased time being outside (41.7%), meeting friends in real life (59.4%), and school performance (30.7%), while reporting increased time to do things they did not have time for before (49.3%) and using social media to stay connected (44.9%). One third of the adolescents increased exercise and felt that they have more control over their life. Only a small proportion of adolescents reported substance use, norm-breaking behaviors, or victimization. The overall COVID-19 impact on adolescent life was gender-specific: we found a stronger negative impact on...
2021
The sudden, unpredictable, and isolative nature of the COVID-19 pandemic is of concern to developmentalists, as it has produced a suboptimal context for adaptive functioning. Social support has been shown to be an effective coping mechanism for buffering the effects of normative stress on adolescent psychological well-being, but what happens when normative stress becomes intertwined with the pervasive economic, health-related, and social stress that accompanies a global pandemic? This study examines the moderating role of minoritized status and social support in the relation between adolescent stress and affect in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 using a sample of Black and White adolescents from low-income backgrounds. Significant differences were found between Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 stress, affect, and social support among Black and White adolescents. Among the full sample, stress predicted positive and negative affect in both Fall 2019 and Spring 2020. While social support shared a p...
Texila International Journal of Academic Research, 2023
This research study investigated the impact of Covid-19 on the social and emotional wellbeing of school aged children in Minnesota, USA. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design in which school-aged children completed a questionnaire enquiring about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their social and emotional wellbeing during the period. A sample of 400 school-aged children were randomized from a population of 955,000 school-aged children in the Minnesota metropolis. The first stage involved the population being stratified into male and female, public and private schools before a sample of 400 school aged children were randomly selected. Two instruments were utilized: The Social Well-Being Scale (SWBS) and The Emotional Well-Being Scale (EWBS). The result revealed a significant difference (β = .223, t = 3.667, p < .05) leading to the conclusion that there was a significant impact of Covid-19 on emotional wellbeing among school-aged children in
Past research suggests that perceived social support from parents, teachers, and peers are all positively associated with wellbeing during adolescence. However, little longitudinal research has examined the implications of distinctive combinations of social support for developing adolescents. To address this limitation, we measured multiple dimensions of social support, psychological ill-health, and wellbeing in a sample of 2034 Australian adolescents (Mage = 13.7; 49.6% male) measured in Grades 8 and 11. Latent transition analyses identified a six-profile solution for both waves of data, and revealed substantial inequality in perceived social support. Two “socially rich” profiles corresponded to 7% of the sample and felt supported from at least two sources of social support 1 SD above the sample mean (Fully Integrated; Parent and Peer Supported). In contrast, 25% of the sample was “socially poor”, having support that was between -.65 to .-86 SD below the sample mean for all three sources (Isolated profile). None of the other profiles (Peer Supported; Moderately Supported; Weakly Supported) had levels of support below -.37 SD from any source. Furthermore, almost all wellbeing problems were concentrated in the Isolated Profile, with negative effects more pronounced in Grade 11 than Grade 8. Despite feeling low parent and teacher support, adolescents in the Peer Supported profile felt strong peer support and average to above-average levels of wellbeing in Grades 8 and 11. However, they also had an 81% chance of making a negative transition to either the Isolated or Weakly Supported profiles in Grade 11.
Análisis y Modificación de Conducta
Depriving people of their liberty has devastating effects upon wellbeing and mental health, especially in adolescents. This was the situation with the recent COVID-19 pandemic that forced adolescents to stay at home. In order to simulate a situation of absence of social interactions outside the family context, Portuguese data from the HBSC / WHO 2018 study were used. It was intended to explore and understand which of the usual adolescents’ health risk and protective factors would be more affected among those who do not have contact with peers after school. The results show that, on the one hand, “social distancing from colleagues” in general reduces health risks, such as consumption of soft drinks, alcohol, tobacco and drug use and involvement in violence (fights, victimization by bullying and injuries). On the other hand, it decreases the perception of well-being and life satisfaction and in general increases the psychological symptoms.
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 2022
The aim of the present study is to determine the relationship between loneliness and depression felt by adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design and Methods: The study sample consisted of 423 adolescents who volunteered to participate in the study. All participants had internet access and the cognitive ability to express themselves. The participants filled out the Google Documents form that included the "Socio-demographic Data Form," "Children's Depression Inventory," and "Short-form UCLA Loneliness Scale" to collect data. Findings: It was determined that the depression inventory total mean score of the adolescents participating in the study was 55.15 ± 2.88 (high) and the loneliness scale total mean score was 16.43 ± 4.93 (medium). A statistically positive high correlation was found between the depression total mean scores and the loneliness total mean scores of the adolescents (p < 0.05). As the loneliness levels of the adolescents increased, their depression levels increased. Practice Implications: Adolescents were more likely to experience mental disorders such as loneliness and depression during and after the pandemic. Governments should focus on the mental health of adolescents in the management of COVID-19. Clinical services should plan and implement prevention activities, support programs, and services to replace early diagnosis and intervention.