Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health Outcomes in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely discussed during the past few months, with scholars expressing concern about its potential debilitating consequences on youth mental health. Hence, this research aimed to provide a systematic review of the evidence on the COVID-19 pan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2020-11, Vol.17 (22), p.8479
Main Authors: Nearchou, Finiki, Flinn, Clodagh, Niland, Rachel, Subramaniam, Sheena Siva, Hennessy, Eilis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescent Health - trends
Adolescents
Anxiety - epidemiology
Betacoronavirus
Child
Child Health - trends
Coronavirus Infections - psychology
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Depression - epidemiology
Epidemics
Humans
Mental health
Mental Health - trends
Outcome Assessment, Health Care
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral - psychology
Psychology
Research design
Review
Reviews
SARS-CoV-2
School closures
Systematic review
Young adults
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Summary:The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely discussed during the past few months, with scholars expressing concern about its potential debilitating consequences on youth mental health. Hence, this research aimed to provide a systematic review of the evidence on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on youth mental health. We conducted a mixed methods integrated review to identify any empirical study that focused on young people ≤ 18 years old. Eight databases were systematically searched to identify studies of any type of research design. The selection procedure followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The protocol of this systematic review was registered with PROSPERO (protocol ID: CRD4202019375). Twelve studies deemed eligible for data extraction ( = 12,262). The findings show that COVID-19 has an impact on youth mental health and is particularly associated with depression and anxiety in adolescent cohorts. The quality appraisal indicated that all studies were of low or moderate methodological quality. The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting young people's lives, and thus generating robust research evidence to inform policy decisions is essential. Hence, the methodological quality of future research should be drastically improved.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph17228479