Worry and Psychosomatic Problems Among Adolescents in Sweden in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Unequal Patterns Among Sociodemographic Groups?
Open accessAbstract
PURPOSE: To analyze potential associations between sociodemographic factors and adolescents' worry about family finances and other types of worries during the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential associations between different worry themes and psychosomatic problems. METHODS: From December 2020 to March 2021, 3,068 16-17 years old students in Sweden completed a questionnaire about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their schooling and everyday life. From April to June 2020, 70% of these students also responded to questions about their psychosomatic health. Logistic regression was applied to analyze the associations between sociodemographic factors and different worry themes and estimate the association between worry and psychosomatic problems. RESULTS: Across all 13 worry themes, girls reported worry to a higher degree than boys. In most of the cases, adolescents with a lower parental educational background or immigrant background reported more frequent worrying. This was most evident for worry about family finances. The differences between adolescents with a Swedish background and those with a foreign background were large except for worry about climate change. All worry themes were associated with the students' psychosomatic health. Those who often or always experienced worry were more likely to report psychosomatic problems. Worry about family finances showed the highest odds ratio and marginal effect. DISCUSSION: Worry about family finances during the COVID-19 pandemic turns out to be a strong and socially structured stressor that may widen the health inequalities among young people. This underlines the need for preventive and promoting measures aimed at supporting socioeconomic disadvantaged groups.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In another Swedish study of 3068 participants aged 16-17, female participants reported more worry than male participants, and participants with lower socioeconomic background reported higher levels of worry in general, except for climate anxiety.
“In another Swedish study, 3068 participants aged 16-17 years filled in a questionnaire about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from December 2020 to March 2021. The author concluded that female participants reported more worry than male participants and that participants with a lower socioeconomic background reported higher levels of worry in general, except for climate anxiety [44].”
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Loades, M. E., Chatburn, E., Higson-Sweeney, N., Reynolds, S., Shafran, R., Brigden, A., Linney, C., McManus, M. N., Borwick, C., & Crawley, E. (2020) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2020.05.009 · Cited by 2,906 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Reports about declines in mental health are also conveyed by other systematic reviews [5,6] and large follow-up surveys (such as that completed by NHS Digital [7]).”
BackgroundRacine, N., McArthur, B. A., Cooke, J. E., Eirich, R., Zhu, J., & Madigan, S. (2021) · JAMA Pediatrics · doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.2482 · Cited by 2,805 · see citing works
Meherali, S., Punjani, N., Louie-Poon, S., Abdul Rahim, K., Das, J. K., Salam, R. A., & Lassi, Z. S. (2021) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph18073432 · Cited by 900 · cited 1× · see citing works
“COVID-19 has increased the risk of mental health problems among young people with many studies showing that mental health and wellbeing of young people is negatively affected by disease containment measures [4].”
BackgroundEllis, W. E., Dumas, T. M., & Forbes, L. M. (2020) · Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement · doi:10.1037/cbs0000215 · Cited by 830 · see citing works
Viner, R., Russell, S., Saulle, R., Croker, H. A., Stansfield, C., Packer, J., Nicholls, D., Goddings, A., Bonell, C. P., Hudson, L. D., et al. (2022) · Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine · doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.5840 · Cited by 798 · see citing works
Panda, P. K., Gupta, J., Chowdhury, S. R., Kumar, R., Meena, A. K., Madaan, P., Sharawat, I. K., & Gulati, S. (2021) · Journal of Tropical Pediatrics · doi:10.1093/tropej/fmaa122 · Cited by 624 · see citing works
Nearchou, F., Flinn, C., Niland, R., Subramaniam, S. S., & Hennessy, E. (2020) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph17228479 · Cited by 577 · see citing works
Manchia, M., Gathier, A. W., Eser, H. Y., Schmidt, M. V., de Quervain, D. J. ‐., van Amelsvoort, T., Bisson, J. I., Cryan, J. F., Howes, O. D., Pinto, L., et al. (2021) · European Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2021.10.864 · Cited by 499 · see citing works
Campbell, O., Bann, D., & Patalay, P. (2020) · doi:10.1101/2020.06.12.20129312 · Cited by 484 · see citing works
Ravens-Sieberer, U., Erhart, M., Devine, J., Gilbert, M., Reiss, F., Barkmann, C., Siegel, N. A., Simon, A. M., Hurrelmann, K., Schlack, R., et al. (2022) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.06.022 · Cited by 401 · see citing works
Hillis, S. D., Unwin, H. J. T., Chen, Y., Cluver, L., Sherr, L., Goldman, P. S., Ratmann, O., Donnelly, C. A., Bhatt, S., Villaveces, A., et al. (2021) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01253-8 · Cited by 299 · cited 1× · see citing works
“In addition to school closures many children have also been affected by devastating family events with an estimated one million children globally having lost a parent because of deaths associated with COVID-19 [17].”
BackgroundCosma, A. P., Stevens, G. W. J. M., Martin, G., Duinhof, E. L., Walsh, S. D., García‐Moya, I., Költő, A., Gobiņa, I., Canale, N., Catunda, C., et al. (2020) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.02.010 · Cited by 241 · see citing works
Hagquist, C., & Andrich, D. (2017) · Health and Quality of Life Outcomes · doi:10.1186/s12955-017-0755-0 · Cited by 206 · see citing works
Self-citationSchool, Learning and Mental Health: A systematic review
Gustafsson, J., Allodi, M. W., Åkerman, B. A., Eriksson, C. C.-G., Eriksson, L., Fischbein, S., Granlund, M., Gustafsson, P. E., Ljungdahl, S., Ogden, T., et al. (2010) · Diva portal (Dalarna University Library) · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Mental health of children and young people during pandemic
Ford, T., John, A., & Gunnell, D. (2021) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.n614 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Oliveira, J. M. D. D., Butini, L., Pauletto, P., Lehmkuhl, K. M., Stefani, C. M., Bolan, M., Guerra, E., Dick, B., De Luca Canto, G., & Massignan, C. (2022) · Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing · doi:10.1111/wvn.12566 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
COVID-19 and adolescent mental health in the United Kingdom
Hu, Y., & Qian, Y. (2021) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.04.005 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Psychometric Properties of the PsychoSomatic Problems Scale: A Rasch Analysis on Adolescent Data
Hagquist, C. (2008) · Social Indicators Research · doi:10.1007/s11205-007-9186-3 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Self-citationAssessing Auxiliary Vectors for Control of Nonresponse Bias in the Calibration Estimator
Särndal, C., & Lundström, S. (2008) · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Economic stress, parenting, and adolescents’ adjustment during the <scp>COVID</scp> ‐19 pandemic
Low, N., & Mounts, N. S. (2022) · Family Relations · doi:10.1111/fare.12623 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
COVID-19: Financial Stress and Well-Being in Families
Rodrigues, M. M. M., Silva, R., & Franco, M. (2021) · Journal of Family Issues · doi:10.1177/0192513x211057009 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Economic stress and perceived health among adolescents in Sweden
Hagquist, C. (1998) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/s1054-139x(97)00168-7 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Self-citationHagquist, C. (2015) · Scandinavian Journal of Public Health · doi:10.1177/1403494815610664 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Self-citationKim, Y., & Hagquist, C. (2017) · Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health · doi:10.1136/jech-2017-209784 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Self-citationGilsbach, S., Herpertz‐Dahlmann, B., & Konrad, K. (2021) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.679041 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Whitehead, R., Berg, C., Cosma, A. P., Gobiņa, I., Keane, E., Neville, F., Ojala, K., & Kelly, C. N. M. (2016) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.09.029 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Terrier, C., Chen, D. L., & Sutter, M. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2110891118 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Sense of Community, Unfairness, and Psychosomatic Symptoms: A Multilevel Analysis of Italian Schools
Vieno, A., Lenzi, M., Santinello, M., et al. (2013) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.02.019 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Villalonga-Olives, E., Forero, C. G., Erhart, M., et al. (2011) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2010.11.260 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
The BELLA study group, Barkmann, C., Otto, C., Schön, G., Schulte‐Markwort, M., Schlack, R., Ravens‐Sieberer, U., & Klasen, F. (2014) · European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1007/s00787-014-0656-2 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Sheen, A., Ro, G. S., Holani, K., et al. (2020) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2020.08.417 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Danielsson, N. S., Norell‐Clarke, A., & Hagquist, C. (2016) · Sleep Health · doi:10.1016/j.sleh.2016.05.005 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Larsson, A., Weineland, S., Nissling, L., & Lilja, J. L. (2025) · JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting · doi:10.2196/59489 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“The author concluded that female participants reported more worry than male participants and that participants with a lower socioeconomic background reported higher levels of worry in general, except for climate anxiety [44].”
- Authors
- Hagquist, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Hagquist, Curt
- ORCID
- Hagquist, Curt
- Venue
- Journal of Adolescent Health
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-05
- Volume
- 72
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 688-695
- ISSN
- 1054-139X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9918865
- OpenAlex
- W4320039296
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4
- FWCI
- 4.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Adolescent Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Gothenburg
- 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
- worry, psychosomatic disorders, adolescents, COVID-19 pandemic, household finance, sociodemographic disparities, health disparities, parental educational background, migrant youth, gender differences, climate change concern, socioeconomic deprivation
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Adolescent, Female, Humans, Male, Psychophysiologic Disorders, Surveys and Questionnaires, Sweden, Logistic Models, Pandemics
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
