Impacts of COVID-19 on Youth Mental Health, Substance Use, and Well-being: A Rapid Survey of Clinical and Community Samples: Répercussions de la COVID-19 sur la santé mentale, l’utilisation de substances et le bien-être des adolescents : un sondage rapide d’échantillons cliniques et communautaires

Abstract

Objectives: The current novel coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents a time-sensitive opportunity to rapidly enhance our knowledge about the impacts of public health crises on youth mental health, substance use, and well-being. This study examines youth mental health and substance use during the pandemic period. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 622 youth participants across existing clinical and community cohorts. Using the National Institute of Mental Health-developed CRISIS tool and other measures, participants reported on the impacts of COVID-19 on their mental health, substance use, and other constructs. Results: Reports of prepandemic mental health compared to intrapandemic mental health show a statistically significant deterioration of mental health across clinical and community samples ( P < 0.001), with greater deterioration in the community sample. A total of 68.4% of youth in the clinical sample and 39.9% in the community sample met screening criteria for an internalizing disorder. Substance use declined in both clinical and community samples ( P < 0.001), although 23.2% of youth in the clinical sample and 3.0% in the community sample met screening criteria for a substance use disorder. Participants across samples report substantial mental health service disruptions (48.7% and 10.8%) and unmet support needs (44.1% and 16.2%). Participants report some positive impacts, are using a variety of coping strategies to manage their wellness, and shared a variety of ideas of strategies to support youth during the pandemic. Conclusions: Among youth with histories of mental health concerns, the pandemic context poses a significant risk for exacerbation of need. In addition, youth may experience the onset of new difficulties. We call on service planners to attend to youth mental health during COVID-19 by bolstering the accessibility of services. Moreover, there is an urgent need to engage young people as coresearchers to understand and address the impacts of the pandemic and the short, medium, and long terms.

Canadian Adolescents’ Mental Health and Substance Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Associations with COVID-19 Stressors

“…The first research to emerge was from China. Researchers found adolescents (ages [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] in the areas with the highest rate of COVID-19 cases and subsequent public health measures to have higher rates of anxiety and depressive symptoms (7). Specifically, the authors found that 22% of their sample was above the clinical cut-off for depression.…”

“…Increased rates of mental health problems in adolescents were also reported by parents in Italy and Spain (9). In a Canadian study conducted in April 2020 found that in a community sample of young adults ages 18-28, 13% met criteria for depression and 10% for anxiety (10). The extent to which stress is related specifically to COVID-19 is less clear.…”

“…Some studies have found young adults to be more concerned with family members becoming ill than their own health (10). Other studies have found parents to report that their children were afraid of COVID-19 (9).…”

“…Other studies have found parents to report that their children were afraid of COVID-19 (9). There are numerous concerns around the current research on adolescent mental health during the time of COVID-19, including few studies of adolescents under the age of 18 (10), an overrepresentation of female respondents(>80%; 9, 11), and a narrow focus on depression and anxiety as outcomes. To our knowledge, no study has reported on the rates of other mental health difficulties in adolescence during COVID-19, such as Conduct Disorder (CD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).…”

Cancer care and well‐being in adolescents and young adults during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: A UK sarcoma perspective

“…A repeated cross-sectional study comparing clinical and community cohorts of young people aged 14 to 28 years found that clinical cohorts had slightly higher mental health symptoms but community cohorts experienced greater deterioration during the pandemic. 6 Similarly, a Dutch study of over 4,000 cancer survivors and matched normative participants found slightly higher levels of depression and loneliness in the general population. 7 These studies suggest that levels of distress may be similar, or even higher, in healthy populations.…”