Emerging mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic among presumably resilient youth -a 9-month follow-up
Open accessAbstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic may have multifarious adverse effects on the mental health of some youth. To our knowledge, no study has followed young people beyond the first 6 months of the pandemic outbreak. The aim of this study was to examine 1) Change in internalizing, externalizing, and total mental health problems over two time-points with a nine-month interval during the COVID-19 outbreak and 2) Whether contextual and COVID-19-related factors contribute to change in mental health problems. Methods: Youth within the municipality of Bergen aged 11-19 years were invited via SMS to participate in an online survey in April and again in December 2020. A total of 2997 (40% response rate) youth participated at baseline in the present study, and 1598 (53.3%) completed the second survey. At baseline, the mean age was 16.0 (standard deviations 1.7) years, about 60% were girls, and 93% were born in Norway. Comparison across time was approached using inferential statistics and mixed linear models with maximum likelihood estimation and mixed-effects logistic regression models. Results: There was an overall increase in total mental health problems from the first weeks into lockdown to 9 months after the pandemic outbreak. The overall increase seems to be exclusively driven by internalizing difficulties, i.e., increases in emotional problems and peer problems. The level of externalizing difficulties, i.e., conduct problems and hyperactivity/inattention remained stable between the two time-points. Conclusions: Our results imply that in the wake of the pandemic, one should be aware of emerging mental health problems among presumably resilient youth, in addition to the more expected and pronounced mental health needs of vulnerable groups. Efforts to reach out to the general youth population with preventive measures in schools may be important actions to normalize the situation for young people, and to identify those in need of more targeted mental health interventions.
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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 [3]
The Background reports increased anxiety and depression symptoms among Australian youth during a stay-at-home directive, and the Conclusions report increased mental health problems among Norwegian youth over nine months. The Discussion says restrictions could partly explain the increase, but cautions against a firm causal interpretation. These passages support an increase in symptoms among youth, not the broader claim that the pandemic and restrictions definitively caused an increase in mental health conditions. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Lehmann, S., Skogen, J. C., Sandal, G. M., Haug, E., & Bjørknes, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Bergen (NO)
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NO)
- NLA University College (NO)
- Corresponding author
- Lehmann, Stine
- Venue
- BMC Psychiatry
- Published
- 2022-01-27
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 67-67
- ISSN
- 1471-244X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8793097
- OpenAlex
- W4226026321
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 6
- FWCI
- 7.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research Square (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- 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, youth mental health, internalizing problems, externalizing problems, emotional problems, peer problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, lockdown, resilience
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adolescent, Communicable Disease Control, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Mental Health, Pandemics
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