Depression and anxiety among children and adolescents pre and post COVID-19: A comparative meta-analysis

Abstract

BackgroundPublished studies in comparing pre and post the COVID-19 pandemic depression and anxiety levels among children and adolescents yielded incongruent results. Therefore, there is a necessity to perform a timely meta-analysis to synthesize existing evidence.MethodsA total of 10 digital databases (PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Scopus, ScienceDirect, CNKI, WanFang, CQVIP) were fully searched for eligible studies published before November 6, 2021. Based on quality assessment results, relevant data were extracted for eligible studies of higher quality. We combined standardized mean difference (SMD) or prevalence ratio (RR) for anxiety and depression pre and post the COVID-19 pandemic by using random-effects models. Sensitivity analysis was further performed to evaluate heterogeneity of included studies.Results14,508 articles were preliminarily identified, and after stepwise screening process, 8 articles were included eventually. The results showed that the SMD for post COVID-19 anxiety score measured by GAD-7 was 0.12 (95% CI: 0.08, 0.17), an significant increase compared with pre COVID-19 period; the SMDs and 95% CIs for post COVID-18 depression scores measured by PHQ-9, PHQ-8, and MFQ were 0.17 (95% CI: 0.10, 0.24), 0.23 (95% CI: 0.08, 0.38), and 0.11 (95% CI: 0.06, 0.17), respectively, also significantly increased compared with pre COVID-19 period. The RR for depression was 2.54 (95% CI: 2.48, 2.60) in post COVID-19 period when compared with pre-pandemic.ConclusionsChildren and adolescents reported deteriorated anxiety and depression levels after the COVID-19 pandemic. More attention should be paid to this vulnerable group. Effective, expedient, and practical intervention measures which are compatible with COVID-19 prevention and control policies should be developed and implemented to maintain mental health wellbeing of the youths.

The effect of anxiety on working memory and language abilities in elementary schoolchildren with and without Additional Health and Developmental Needs

“…Our results also revealed that both AHDN and NT children were equally likely to experience sub-clinical anxiety, with just over a quarter (26.8%) of all children in our sample reported by parents as being moderately anxious. These results highlight the importance of rigorous assessment of anxiety in all schoolchildren, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, during which the prevalence of anxiety in children and adolescents has increased significantly ( Racine et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). How this applies to AHDN children in particular, who were already at a higher risk of experiencing anxiety, awaits further investigation.…”

“…High childhood anxiety is a significant public health concern, given the long-term negative social, emotional and educational consequences, and rising prevalence during the COVID-19 Pandemic ( Hadwin et al, 2016 ; Racine et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). The current study demonstrated that AHDN children are 10.5 times more likely to experience high anxiety than their NT peers, and that a quarter of all children experience moderate, sub-clinical anxiety.…”

“…The global prevalence of childhood anxiety disorders is 7% ( Polanczyk et al, 2015 ; Goodsell et al, 2017 ), although in children categorised as Additional Health and Developmental Needs (AHDN), who experience chronic medical or neurodevelopmental conditions, the rates of anxiety reported are typically much higher ( Manassis et al, 2007 ; Ghandour et al, 2010 ; van Steensel et al, 2011 ; Cross et al, 2019 ; Green et al, 2019 ). Further, early reports suggest that rates of anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents have doubled during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic ( Racine et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). This is particularly concerning, as high anxiety in childhood and adolescence has long been associated with a range of negative learning outcomes, including higher rates of absenteeism and school refusal, and poor academic performance ( Hembree, 1988 ; Mazzone et al, 2007 ; Hadwin et al, 2016 ; Goodsell et al, 2017 ; Finning et al, 2019 ).…”

The Trap of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Italian Adolescents Fare Well at First, Maybe Thanks to Protective Trait Expression

“…Such a result, along with the literature that supported our hypotheses [ 15 , 55 ] conveys the impression that the initial phase of this pandemic misguided us into observing preserved adolescent psychological functioning. On the contrary, literature addressing later results [ 78 ] showed a progressive impairment in adolescent mental health co-occurring with the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that individual protective factors such as Positivity might support psychological well-being, albeit not indefinitely. Additionally, it provides tentative evidence on how two key cognitive contributors to internalizing symptomatology (i.e., Positivity and IU) may act jointly in face of a significant stressor, although further investigations are warranted.…”

Role of emotion regulation capacities in affective state among Chinese high school students in the post-pandemic era of COVID-19

“…In addition, people have to comply with management and control measures, like traveling limits, social distancing, and sudden quarantine, and have to experience dramatic changes in the living environment. All these are expected to aggravate psychological and emotional disorders among the adolescent population (Wang S. et al, 2022 ). To help contain the overall deterioration of adolescents' mental health in this special and unprecedented period, an academic and practical concern regarding the effectiveness of commonly used emotional regulation strategies should have been addressed via empirical research, that is, which emotion regulation strategies are truly effective for maintaining Chinese adolescents' favorable affect state during the post-pandemic age of COVID-19.…”