Adolescents and Resilience: Factors Contributing to Health-Related Quality of Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study aimed to examine health-related quality of life of adolescents before and during the COVID-19 outbreak, and its relationship to resilience embodied in hope and a sense of coherence. Typically developed adolescents between the ages of 13 to 18 participated in the study; 84 were recruited before the pandemic outbreak and 64 in March to April 2020 during the worldwide outbreak. The participants completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, Sense of Coherence Scale, and Children’s Hope Scale. During the outbreak, adolescents reported higher physical health-related quality of life scores (F(1146) = 3.710, p < 0.05, η² = 0.027) and lower school health-related quality of life scores (F(1146) = 5.748, p < 0.05, η2 = 0.028), compared to adolescents during the pre-outbreak period. Furthermore, adolescents during the outbreak reported a significantly (p < 0.05) higher sense of coherence but no difference in levels of hope. Finally, the results of multiple linear regression indicated that resilience factors (hope and sense of coherence) contributed to the prediction of health-related quality of life, independent of socio-demographic variables. Hope and a sense of coherence were both found to positively impact one core aspect of health, which highlights the importance of addressing resilience factors in educational and therapeutic settings for adolescents thus that they are better able to adapt to stressful events such as pandemics.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents: determinants and association with quality of life and mental health – A cross-sectional study

“…HRQoL level was higher in our results compared with international population-based studies conducted during the pandemic (mean PedsQL score: 83.8 vs 61.3-79.7) (33)(34)(35). Similarly, in our sample, occurrence of mental health problems was lower than reported in other countries (mean SDQ score: 7.2 vs 10.7-12.1) (35)(36)(37)(38).…”

Resilience mediates the influence of hope, optimism, social support, and stress on anxiety severity among Chinese patients with cervical spondylosis

“…Hope has also been identified as protective factors against depressive symptoms among college students surrounding COVID-19 outbreak (30). Despite the positive and conducive effect of optimism and hope in maintenance of psychological well-being in people in face of diverse adversities, their correlation with resilience among CS patients was lacking, although existing literature showed that optimistic individuals or those with dispositional hope appear more resilient when addressing negative events, such as oral cancer and COVID-19 outbreak (13,31,32).…”

Association between childhood trauma and mental health disorders in adolescents during the second pandemic wave of COVID-19, Chiclayo-Peru

“…Finally, our study found that resilience was negatively associated with anxiety symptoms. Adolescents with higher resilience scores experienced lower prevalence of anxiety symptoms, suggesting that promoting resilience can have positive effects on adolescent mental health during the pandemic ( 91 ).…”