COVID-19 pandemic impact on adolescent mental health: a reassessment accounting for development

• Published in: European child & adolescent psychiatry 2024-08, Vol.33 (8), p.2615-2627
• Main Authors: Wright, N., Hill, J., Sharp, H., Refberg-Brown, M., Crook, D., Kehl, S., Pickles, A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent girls; Age differences; Behavior problems; Child; Child & adolescent mental health; Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; Child development; Childrens health; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 - psychology; Depression - epidemiology; Depression - psychology; Female; Girls; Health problems; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental Health; Mothers; Original Paper; Pandemics; Problem Behavior - psychology; Psychiatry; Sex Factors; United Kingdom - epidemiology
• ISSN: 1018-8827; 1435-165X; 1435-165X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00787-023-02337-y

Current prospective reports suggest a pandemic-related increase in adolescent mental health problems. We examine whether age-related change over 11–14 years accounts for this increase. Mothers and adolescents in a UK-based birth cohort (Wirral Child Health and Development Study; WCHADS; N  = 737) reported on adolescent depression and behavioural problems pre-pandemic (December 2019–March 2020), mid-pandemic (June 2020–March 2021) and late pandemic (July 2021–March 2022). Analysis used repeated measures models for over-dispersed Poisson counts with an adolescent-specific intercept with age as a time-varying covariate. Maturational curves for girls, but not for boys, showed a significant increase in self-reported depression symptoms over ages 11–14 years. Behavioural problems decreased for both. After adjusting for age-related change, girls’ depression increased by only 13% at mid-pandemic and returned to near pre-pandemic level at late pandemic (mid versus late – 12%), whereas boys’ depression increased by 31% and remained elevated (mid versus late 1%). Age-adjusted behavioural problems increased for both (girls 40%, boys 41%) and worsened from mid- to late pandemic (girls 33%, boys 18%). Initial reports of a pandemic-related increase in depression in young adolescent girls could be explained by a natural maturational rise. In contrast, maturational decreases in boys’ depression and both boys’ and girls’ behavioural problems may mask an effect of the pandemic.