Coping and Mental Health in Early Adolescence during COVID-19

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.

Adolescence Amid a Pandemic: Short‐ and Long‐Term Implications

“…1 The Critical Need for a Broad Perspective Studies from this special issue parallel those in the larger literature documenting a negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for youth mental health (Alt, Reim, & Walper, 2021;Hollenstein, Colasante, & Lougheed, 2021;van Loon et al, 2021;Miconi et al, 2021;Romm, Park, Hughes, & Gentzler, 2021), including suicidal ideation (Hutchinson et al, 2021) and loneliness (Janssens et al, 2021;Sabato, Abraham, & Kogut, 2021). These effects, though not always found particularly for studies of youth in the earliest months of the pandemic lockdown (Barendse et al, 2021;De France, Hancock, Stack, Serbin, & Hollenstein, 2021), appear strongest for youth at greatest risk (Hussong, Midgette, Thomas, Coffman, & Cho, 2021;Hutchinson et al, 2021). As reported by one youth when asked about the biggest challenges of the pandemic (11th grade female; Benner, 2021).…”

COVID-19 Employment Status, Dyadic Family Relationships, and Child Psychological Well-Being

“…Using multiinformant daily-diary data with a racially and socioeconomically diverse U.S. sample, this study showed that COVID-19's effect on parental employment status shaped family processes which in turn influenced adolescent emotional adjustment. With emerging evidence showing increased mental health issues among U.S. adolescents during COVID-19 [ 36 ], the need for research that identifies key risk and protective factors for youth well-being persists. The American Academy of Pediatrics policy guidance emphasizes the central role pediatricians play in promoting children's socioemotional health, and researchers and policy makers continue to advocate for mental health screening and referrals in schools [ 37 , 38 ].…”

Changes in youth mental health, psychological wellbeing, and substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid review

“…One hundred and twenty-one publications reporting on youth mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic were found (see Appendix, Table 1 X. Elmer et al, 2020;Evans et al, 2021;Giuntella et al, 2021;Hawes, Szenczy, Olino, et al, 2021;Huckins et al, 2020;Hussong et al, 2021;Magson et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2020), two of no significant change (Janssen et al, 2020;Teng et al, 2021), and two of fewer depressive symptoms (Li et al, 2020;Xiang et al, 2020). Participants in a qualitative study described feeling hopeless and that life was meaningless during the pandemic, as well as losing sleep and interest in activities (Suhail et al, 2020).…”

“…Overall, 16 publications (67%) indicated increases in externalizing behavior, six indicated no significant changes (25%), and two indicated reductions (8%). Of the eight longitudinal studies, two indicated an overall worsening of symptoms (Copeland et al, 2021;Hussong et al, 2021), two indicated no overall change (Bailey et al, 2021;Ezpeleta et al, 2020), and two indicated improvements in externalizing behavior (Achterberg et al, 2021;Penner et al, 2021). A longitudinal study of adolescents with and without diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the United States indicated significant increases in inattention but no change in hyperactivity (Breaux et al, 2021).…”

“…The positive coping strategies included staying connected to others and maintaining positivity (Waselewski et al, 2020), as well as exercising, going outdoors, and engaging in creative pursuits (O'Brien et al, 2021). In a longitudinal study in the United States, youth who engaged in problem-focused coping experienced fewer mental health symptoms during the pandemic (Hussong et al, 2021).…”