Adolescents’ Psychosocial Well-Being One Year after the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Norway
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically restricted adolescents' lives. We used nationwide Norwegian survey data from 2014-2021 (N = 227,258; ages 13-18) to examine psychosocial outcomes in adolescents before and during the pandemic. Multilevel models revealed higher depressive symptoms and less optimistic future life expectations during the pandemic, even when accounting for the measures' time trends. Moreover, alcohol and cannabis use decreased, and screen time increased. However, the effect sizes of all observed changes during the pandemic were small. Overall, conduct problems and satisfaction with social relationships remained stable. Girls, younger adolescents and adolescents from low socio-economic backgrounds showed more adverse changes during the pandemic. Estimated changes in psychosocial outcomes varied little with municipality infection rates and restrictions. These findings can inform means and interventions to reduce negative psychological outcomes associated with the pandemic and identify groups that need particular attention during and after the pandemic.
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?
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent restrictions led to an increase in mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
“The emergence of the COVID-19 virus and the subsequent restrictions enacted by over 180 countries [1] have led to an increase in mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression [2,3,4,5,6]”
From Virtual Reality for Addressing Depression and Anxiety: A Bibliometric Analysis (2023) · cites this paper as [6]
The Discussion reports increased depressive symptoms among Norwegian adolescents one year into the pandemic. The Previous research section says adolescent anxiety symptoms remained stable in the longitudinal studies it discusses, while the Discussion says stricter local restrictions were not related to the study’s psychosocial well-being measures other than smoking. The source therefore supports an increase in depressive symptoms, but not the attributed increase in anxiety or a specific effect of restrictions on mental health. (LLM, conf=0.89)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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
Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using <b>lme4</b>
Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015) · Journal of Statistical Software · doi:10.18637/jss.v067.i01 · Cited by 86,835 · see citing works
The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism
Hicks, A., & Esping-Andersen, G. (1991) · Contemporary Sociology · doi:10.2307/2073705 · Cited by 7,092 · see citing works
Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses
Brambor, T., Clark, W. R., & Golder, M. (2006) · Political Analysis · doi:10.1093/pan/mpi014 · Cited by 6,223 · cited 1× · see citing works
“We then calculated point estimates of these conditional effects for specific values of the moderator variables 52 .”
Holmes, E. A., O'Connor, R. C., Perry, V. H., Tracey, I., Wessely, S., Arseneault, L., Ballard, C., Christensen, H., Cohen Silver, R., Everall, I., et al. (2020) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30168-1 · Cited by 5,715 · see citing works
The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL): A self-report symptom inventory
Derogatis, L. R., Lipman, R. S., Rickels, K., Uhlenhuth, E. H., & Covi, L. (1974) · Behavioral Science · doi:10.1002/bs.3830190102 · Cited by 4,604 · see citing works
Centering predictor variables in cross-sectional multilevel models: A new look at an old issue.
Enders, C. K., & Tofighi, D. (2007) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/1082-989x.12.2.121 · Cited by 4,462 · see citing works
Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health in 22 European Countries
Mackenbach, J. P., Stirbu, I., Roskam, A.-J. R., Schaap, M. M., Menvielle, G., Leinsalu, M., & Kunst, A. E. (2008) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmsa0707519 · Cited by 3,289 · see citing works
The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001–2014
Chetty, R., Stepner, M., Abraham, S., Lin, S., Scuderi, B., Turner, N., Bergeron, A., & Cutler, D. (2016) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2016.4226 · Cited by 2,812 · see citing works
Pierce, M., Hope, H., Ford, T., Hatch, S., Hotopf, M., John, A., Kontopantelis, E., Webb, R., Wessely, S., McManus, S., et al. (2020) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30308-4 · Cited by 2,621 · see citing works
Book Reviews : The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism
Esping‐Andersen, G., & Standing, G. (1991) · Journal of European Social Policy · doi:10.1177/095892879100100108 · Cited by 2,287 · see citing works
Flexible Imputation of Missing Data, Second Edition
van Buuren, S. (2018) · doi:10.1201/9780429492259 · Cited by 2,273 · see citing works
Risk and resilience in family well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prime, H., Wade, M., & Browne, D. T. (2020) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/amp0000660 · Cited by 2,272 · see citing works
Magson, N. R., Freeman, J. Y. A., Rapee, R. M., Richardson, C. E., Oar, E. L., & Fardouly, J. (2021) · Journal of Youth and Adolescence · doi:10.1007/s10964-020-01332-9 · Cited by 1,436 · see citing works
Inequality in the impact of the coronavirus shock: Evidence from real time surveys
Adams‐Prassl, A., Boneva, T., Golin, M., & Rauh, C. (2020) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104245 · Cited by 1,403 · see citing works
Robustness of linear mixed-effects models to violations of distributional assumptions
Schielzeth, H., Dingemanse, N. J., Nakagawa, S., Westneat, D. F., Allegue, H., Teplitsky, C., Réale, D., Dochtermann, N. A., Garamszegi, L. Z., & Araya‐Ajoy, Y. G. (2020) · Methods in Ecology and Evolution · doi:10.1111/2041-210x.13434 · Cited by 1,393 · see citing works
Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology: The Role of Gender
Nolen–Hoeksema, S. (2012) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032511-143109 · Cited by 1,276 · see citing works
The effects of social deprivation on adolescent development and mental health
Orben, A., Tomova, L., & Blakemore, S.-J. (2020) · The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/s2352-4642(20)30186-3 · Cited by 1,229 · cited 1× · see citing works
“(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) Social relationships (1) Peer relationships (2) Parental relationship 0.”
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and mental health for children and adolescents
Golberstein, E., Wen, H., & Miller, B. F. (2020) · JAMA Pediatrics · doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.1456 · Cited by 1,140 · cited 3× · see citing works
“(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) Social relationships (1) Peer relationships (2) Parental relationship 0.”
Developing a National Index of Subjective Wellbeing: The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index
Cummins, R. A., Eckersley, R., Pallant, J., van Vugt, J., & Misajon, R. (2003) · Social Indicators Research · doi:10.1023/a:1024704320683 · Cited by 1,061 · see citing works
Psychological distress and loneliness reported by US adults in 2018 and April 2020
McGinty, E. E., Presskreischer, R., Han, H., & Barry, C. L. (2020) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2020.9740 · Cited by 978 · see citing works
Epidemiology of Depressive Mood in Adolescents
Kandel, D. B. (1982) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1982.04290100065011 · Cited by 921 · see citing works
Parenting in a time of COVID-19
Cluver, L. D., Lachman, J. M., Sherr, L., Wessels, I. M., Krug, E. G., Rakotomalala, S., Blight, S., Hillis, S. D., Bachman, G. L., Green, O., et al. (2020) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30736-4 · Cited by 883 · see citing works
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents’ lifestyle behavior larger than expected.
Xiang, M., Zhang, Z., & Kuwahara, K. (2020) · Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases · doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2020.04.013 · Cited by 847 · see citing works
The problem of units and the circumstance for POMP
Cohen, P., Cohen, J., Aiken, L., & West, S. (1999) · Multivariate Behavioral Research · doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr3403_2 · Cited by 830 · see citing works
Hall, G., Laddu, D., Phillips, S. A., Lavie, C. J., & Arena, R. A. (2020) · Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases · doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2020.04.005 · Cited by 804 · see citing works
Venter, Z. S., Barton, D. N., Gundersen, V., Figari, H., & Nowell, M. (2020) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abb396 · Cited by 803 · see citing works
Schmidt, S., Anedda, B., Burchartz, A., Eichsteller, A., Kolb, S., Nigg, C., Niessner, C., Oriwol, D., Worth, A., & Wöll, A. (2020) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-78438-4 · Cited by 729 · see citing works
The development of psychopathology in females and males: Current progress and future challenges
Crick, N. R., & Zahn‐Waxler, C. (2003) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s095457940300035x · Cited by 514 · see citing works
Dumas, T. M., Ellis, W. E., & Litt, D. (2020) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.06.018 · Cited by 472 · see citing works
Two Multilevel Modeling Techniques for Analyzing Comparative Longitudinal Survey Datasets
Fairbrother, M. (2013) · Political Science Research and Methods · doi:10.1017/psrm.2013.24 · Cited by 375 · see citing works
The Random Effects in Multilevel Models: Getting Them Wrong and Getting Them Right
Schmidt-Catran, A. W., & Fairbrother, M. (2016) · European Sociological Review · doi:10.1093/esr/jcv090 · Cited by 368 · see citing works
Pandemic precarity: COVID-19 is exposing and exacerbating inequalities in the American heartland
Perry, B. L., Aronson, B., & Pescosolido, B. A. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2020685118 · Cited by 363 · see citing works
Mental distress among U.S. adults during the COVID-19 pandemic
Twenge, J. M., & Joiner, T. E. (2020) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.23064 · Cited by 330 · see citing works
Mental distress among U.S. adults during the COVID-19 pandemic
Twenge, J., & Joiner, T. (2020) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/wc8ud · Cited by 330 · see citing works
Windle, M. T. (1990) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-843x.99.1.86 · Cited by 328 · see citing works
Þórisdóttir, I. E., Ásgeirsdóttir, B. B., Kristjánsson, Á. L., Valdimarsdottir, H. B., Tölgyes, E. M. J., Sigfússon, J., Allegrante, J. P., Sigfúsdóttir, I. D., & Halldorsdottir, T. (2021) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(21)00156-5 · Cited by 277 · see citing works
Has COVID-19 Changed Crime? Crime Rates in the United States during the Pandemic
Boman, J. H., & Gallupe, O. (2020) · American Journal of Criminal Justice · doi:10.1007/s12103-020-09551-3 · Cited by 250 · see citing works
Brodersen, N. H., Steptoe, A., Williamson, S., & Wardle, J. (2005) · Annals of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1207/s15324796abm2901_2 · Cited by 249 · see citing works
Child Development During the COVID-19 Pandemic Through a Life Course Theory Lens
Benner, A. D., & Mistry, R. S. (2020) · Child Development Perspectives · doi:10.1111/cdep.12387 · Cited by 242 · see citing works
Barendse, M. E. A., Flannery, J., Cavanagh, C., Aristizabal, M., Becker, S. P., Berger, E. L., Breaux, R., Campione‐Barr, N., Church, J. A., Crone, E. A., et al. (2022) · Journal of Research on Adolescence · doi:10.1111/jora.12781 · Cited by 230 · see citing works
The Reliability and Consistency of Self‐reports on Substance Use in a Longitudinal Study
Barnea, Z., Rahav, G., & Teichman, M. (1987) · British Journal of Addiction · doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.1987.tb03909.x · Cited by 208 · see citing works
Prevalence and Incidence in the Study of Antisocial Behavior: Definitions and Measurements
Olweus, D. (1989) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-009-1001-0_9 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
Hafstad, G. S., Sætren, S. S., Wentzel‐Larsen, T., & Augusti, E. (2021) · The Lancet Regional Health - Europe · doi:10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100093 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
COVID-19 and child and adolescent psychiatry: an unexpected blessing for part of our population?
Bruining, H., Bartels, M., Polderman, T. J. C., & Popma, A. (2020) · European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1007/s00787-020-01578-5 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
Ebrahimi, O. V., Hoffart, A., & Johnson, S. U. (2021) · Clinical Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/2167702621994545 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Disease, downturns, and wellbeing: Economic history and the long-run impacts of COVID-19
Arthi, V., & Parman, J. M. (2020) · Explorations in Economic History · doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2020.101381 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Secular Trends in Depressive Symptoms Among Norwegian Adolescents from 1992 to 2010
von Soest, T., & Wichstrøm, L. (2013) · Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology · doi:10.1007/s10802-013-9785-1 · Cited by 103 · see citing works
Forecasting life satisfaction across adulthood: Benefits of seeing a dark future?
Lang, F. R., Weiss, D. J., Gerstorf, D., & Wagner, G. G. (2013) · Psychology and Aging · doi:10.1037/a0030797 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Hansen, T., Nilsen, T. S., Yu, B., Knapstad, M., Skogen, J. C., Vedaa, Ø., & Nes, R. B. (2021) · Scandinavian Journal of Public Health · doi:10.1177/1403494821993711 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Heggebø, K., Tøge, A. G., Dahl, E. S., & Berg, J. E. (2018) · Scandinavian Journal of Public Health · doi:10.1177/1403494818801637 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Barendse, M., Flannery, J. E., Cavanagh, C., Aristizabal, M., Becker, S. P., Berger, E., Breaux, R., Campione-Barr, N., Church, J. A., Crone, E. A., et al. (2021) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/hn7us · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Gunnell, K. E., Brunet, J., & Bélanger, M. F. (2017) · Preventive Medicine Reports · doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2017.12.008 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
DeGagne, B., & Busseri, M. A. (2021) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2765 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Using Surveys to Study Substance Use Behavior
Johnson, T. P., & VanGeest, J. B. (2017) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-55980-3_13 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Bann, D. et al. Changes in the behavioural determinants of health during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: gender, socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities in 5 British cohort studies. medRxiv, doi: 10.1101/2020.1107.1129.20164244 (2020). · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Wallace, J., Boers, E., Ouellet, J., Afzali, M. H., & Conrod, P. (2023) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-023-44105-7 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Virtual Reality for Addressing Depression and Anxiety: A Bibliometric Analysis
Jingili, N., Oyelere, S. S., Ojwang, F., Agbo, F. J., & Nyström, M. B. T. (2023) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph20095621 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
- Authors
- von Soest, T., Kozák, M., Rodríguez-Cano, R., Fluit, S., Cortés-García, L., Ulset, V. S., Haghish, E. F., & Bakken, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Oslo (NO)
- OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University (NO)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Human Behaviour
- Published
- 2022-01-20
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 217-228
- ISSN
- 2397-3374 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4206674925
- Cited by
- 122
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 20
- FWCI
- 26.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Human Behaviour (publishedVersion)
- Research Square (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Norges Forskningsråd (300816, 301010, 288083)
- 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 › Safety Research › Social impacts of COVID-19
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents, psychosocial well-being, depressive symptoms, optimism, alcohol consumption, cannabis use, screen time, conduct problems, interpersonal relationships, gender differences, age differences, socioeconomic status, pandemic restrictions, Norway
- MeSH terms
- Screen Time, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Communicable Disease Control, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Norway, Psychology, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Behavior, Needs Assessment
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
