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A systematic review of the mental health changes of children and young people before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Open accessAbstract
There is increasing knowledge that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on mental health of children and young people. However, the global evidence of mental health changes before compared to during the COVID-19 pandemic focusing on children and young people has not been systematically reviewed. This systematic review examined longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional studies comparing before and during COVID-19 pandemic data to determine whether the mental health of children and young people had changed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Web of Science, PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO databases were searched to identify peer-reviewed studies that had been published in English and focused on children and young people between 0 and 24 years of age. This identified 21 studies from 11 countries, covering more than 96,000 subjects from 3 to 24 years of age. Pre-pandemic and pandemic data were compared. Most studies reported longitudinal deterioration in the mental health of adolescents and young people, with increased depression, anxiety and psychological distress after the pandemic started. Other findings included deteriorated negative affect, mental well-being and increased loneliness. Comparing data for pandemic and pre-pandemic periods showed that the COVID-19 pandemic may negatively impact the mental health of children and young people. There is an urgent need for high-quality research to address the impact, risks and protective factors of the pandemic on their mental health, as this will provide a good foundation for dealing with future health emergencies and other crises.
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“A systematic review comparing the prepandemic and pandemic periods found that youth experienced higher levels of isolation, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic [7].”
From Psychological Interventions and Those With Elements of Positive Psychology for Child and Youth Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Literature Review, Lessons Learned, and Areas for Future Knowledge Dissemination (2024) · cites this paper as [7]
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In the citing paper
“Data used in this study spanned the COVID-19 pandemic which created changes in children’s need for mental health care and practices in mental health service delivery (Kauhanen et al., 2023; Palinkas et al., 2021; Purtle et al., 2022; Sklar et al., 2021; Zablotsky et al., 2022)”
From Adequate Care Coordination is Associated with Reduced Unmet Mental Health Needs for Children (2026) · cites this paper as Kauhanen et al., 2023
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kauhanen, L., Wan Mohd Yunus, W. M. A., Lempinen, L., Peltonen, K., Gyllenberg, D., Mishina, K., Gilbert, S., Bastola, K., Brown, J. S. L., & Sourander, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Turku (FI)
- Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (FI)
- King's College London (GB)
- ORCID
- Venue
- European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- Published
- 2022-08-12
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 995-1013
- ISSN
- 1018-8827 (ISSN-L)
- 1435-165X
- PMC
- PMC9373888
- OpenAlex
- W4290861006
- Cited by
- 544
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 87 · 2025: 129 · 2024: 206 · 2023: 112 · 2022: 9
- FWCI
- 19.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UTUPub (University of Turku) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- STM:n Hallinnonalan avoin julkaisuarkisto (Julkari) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Academy of Finland (335690, 320162)
- Juho Vainion Säätiö
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, child mental health, adolescent mental health, depression, anxiety, psychological distress, loneliness, negative affect, psychological well-being, pre-pandemic comparison
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Adolescent, Anxiety, Child, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Humans, Mental Health, Pandemics
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