Adolescent Mental Health Before and During COVID-19 : Longitudinal Evidence From the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort in Brazil

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc..

PURPOSE: There is great interest in examining the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health, but most studies were conducted in high-income countries. The identification of overall effects and protective factors is essential to understand the determinants of mental wellbeing in contexts of stress. We aimed to study changes in adolescent mental health during the pandemic and the risk and protective factors associated with these changes in a Brazilian birth cohort.

METHODS: One thousand nine hundred forty nine adolescents from the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort were assessed prepandemic (T1, November 2019 to March 2020, mean age 15.69 years) and mid-pandemic (T2, August to December 2021, mean age 17.41 years). Mental health was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Prepandemic and pandemic-related predictors were examined as predictors of change in multivariate latent change scores models.

RESULTS: There was a mean increase in adolescent total mental health difficulties (M = 1.071, p < .001), hyperactivity/inattention (M = 0.208, p < .001), emotion symptoms (M = 0.409, p < .001), and peer problems (M = 0.434, p < .001) during the pandemic. This increase was associated with several negative family context variables, including harsh parenting and maternal depressive symptoms at T2. Higher emotion regulation levels protected against increases in adolescent mental health difficulties related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

DISCUSSION: Family-context variables emerged as important risk factors for the deterioration of adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interventions promoting emotion regulation strategies are a promising approach to protecting adolescent wellbeing in periods of stress.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:74

Enthalten in:

The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine - 74(2024), 4 vom: 15. März, Seite 729-738

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Maruyama, Jessica Mayumi [VerfasserIn]
Tovo-Rodrigues, Luciana [VerfasserIn]
Santos, Iná S [VerfasserIn]
Murray, Joseph [VerfasserIn]
Matijasevich, Alicia [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Adolescent
COVID-19 pandemic
Cohort
Journal Article
Mental health
Risk factors

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 25.03.2024

Date Revised 25.03.2024

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.10.016

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM36799982X