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Cited by 112COVID-19 and Mental HealthChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentStudent Stress and Coping

Coping and Mental Health in Early Adolescence during COVID-19

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Hussong, Andrea M., Midgette, Allegra J., Thomas, Taylor E., Coffman, Jennifer L., Cho, Su·2021·Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
DOI 10.1007/s10802-021-00821-0PMC PMC8048334

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Abstract

The current longitudinal study examines changes in overall mental health symptomatology from before to after the COVID-19 outbreak in youth from the southeastern United States as well as the potential mitigating effects of self-efficacy, optimism, and coping. A sample of 105 parent-child dyads participated in the study (49% boys; 81% European American, 1% Alaska Native/American Indian, 9% Asian/Asian American; 4% Black/African American; 4% Latinx; and 4% other; 87% mothers; 25% high school graduate without college education; 30% degree from 4-year college; 45% graduate or professional school). Parents completed surveys when children were aged 6-9, 8-12, 9-13, and 12-16, with the last assessments occurring between May 13, 2020 and July 1, 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak. Children also completed online surveys at ages 11-16 assessing self-efficacy, optimism, and coping. Multi-level modeling analyses showed a within-person increase in mental health symptoms from before to after the outbreak after controlling for changes associated with maturation. Symptom increases were mitigated in youth with greater self-efficacy and (to some extent) problem-focused engaged coping, and exacerbated in youth with greater emotion-focused engaged and disengaged coping. Implications of this work include the importance of reinforcing self-efficacy in youth during times of crisis, such as the pandemic, and the potential downsides of emotion-focused coping as an early response to the crisis for youth.

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  • Hussong et al. (2021) reported increasing trajectories in young adolescents' overall mental health symptoms because of COVID-19 restrictions in the United States.

    “Similarly, in the United States, reports from N = 105 parent–child dyads pointed to increasing trajectories in young adolescent's overall mental health symptoms because of COVID‐19 restrictions (Hussong et al., 2021).”

    From Adolescents' longitudinal trajectories of mental health and loneliness: The impact of COVID‐19 school closures (2022) · cites this paper as Hussong et al., 2021

    The Abstract reports 105 parent–child dyads in the southeastern United States and a within-person increase in mental health symptoms after the COVID-19 outbreak. The Discussion associates the increase with the pandemic’s onset, but says the study was not designed to assess the nature of stress exposure or extent of life disruption; it does not establish that restrictions caused the increase. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Deteriorations in adolescent mental health from prolonged school closures have been reported in longitudinal studies, along with changes in loneliness.

    “Deteriorations in adolescent's mental health from prolonged school closures have been reported in longitudinal studies, along with changes in loneliness (Hussong et al., 2021; Magson et al., 2021).”

    From Adolescents' longitudinal trajectories of mental health and loneliness: The impact of COVID‐19 school closures (2022) · cites this paper as Hussong et al., 2021

    The Discussion (page unavailable) reports increased mental-health symptoms in young adolescents followed longitudinally from before the COVID-19 outbreak to three to five months afterward. The Methods (page unavailable) note that local schools closed, but the study does not establish prolonged school closures as the cause of the increase or report changes in loneliness. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Few longitudinal studies have examined the impact of COVID-19-related school closures on the mental health of adolescents.

    “To date, few longitudinal studies have examined the impact of COVID‐19‐related school closures on the mental health of adolescents.”

    From Adolescents' longitudinal trajectories of mental health and loneliness: The impact of COVID‐19 school closures (2022) · cites this paper as Hussong et al., 2021

    The Discussion says most recent research on COVID-19 and youth mental health was commentary or cross-sectional, supporting the claim that longitudinal studies were few. The Method section mentions local school closures, but the paper does not specifically assess the mental-health impact of school closures or characterize the number of longitudinal studies on that narrower question. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The limited number of prospective longitudinal studies to date confirm these cross-sectional study findings.

    “The limited number of prospective longitudinal studies to date (Breaux et al., 2021; Hussong et al., 2021; Magson et al., 2021) confirm these cross‐sectional study findings.”

    From Adolescents' longitudinal trajectories of mental health and loneliness: The impact of COVID‐19 school closures (2022) · cites this paper as Hussong et al., 2021

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Hussong, A. M., Midgette, A. J., Thomas, T. E., Coffman, J. L., & Cho, S.
Affiliations
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
  • University of North Carolina at Greensboro (US)
Corresponding author
Hussong, Andrea M.
ORCID
Venue
Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2021-04-15
Volume
49
Issue
9
Pages
1113-1123
ISSN
  • 0091-0627 (ISSN-L)
  • 2730-7166
  • 2730-7174
DOI
10.1007/s10802-021-00821-0
PMC
PMC8048334
OpenAlex
W3127963531
Cited by
112
References
15
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 10
FWCI
15.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
  • Research Square (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion)
  • UNC Libraries
Funders
  • John Templeton Foundation
  • National Institutes of Health (UL1TR002489)
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32HD007376)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, adolescent mental health, coping, self-efficacy, optimism, problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, psychiatric symptoms, early adolescence, parent-child dyads, within-person change, crisis response
MeSH terms
Optimism, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Child, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mental Health, Southeastern United States, Self Efficacy

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