Longitudinal mental health state during the COVID-19 pandemic. Longitudinal change of mental symptoms and its predictors during the COVID-19 pandemic: A prospective longitudinal study on Spanish population.

Abstract

Objective:The general objective of this study is to analyze the change in mental health and post-traumatic symptoms over 6 months during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Spanish community sample, with a particular focus on individual differences in longitudinal change in symptoms and its predictors. Method: This longitudinal prospective study surveyed a Spanish community sample three times (T1: during the initial outbreak, T2: after 4 weeks and T3: after 6 months). Four thousand one hundred and thirty-nine participants from all the Spanish regions completed the questionnaires. However, the longitudinal analysis was performed only with participants which responded at least two times (1,423 participants). Mental health assessments included depression, anxiety, and stress (measured by the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and post-traumatic symptoms were assessed by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). Results: All the mental health variables achieved worse results at T2. Depression, stress, and posttraumatic symptoms did not recover at T3 when compared with the initial measure, while anxiety was practically stable across the timeline. Women, younger age, having a previous mental health diagnosis and contact with individuals with COVID-19 were linked to worse psychological evolution during the 6-months period. A good perception of one's physical health may be a protective factor. Conclusions: After 6 months of the pandemic, the general population's mental health was still worse than at the initial outbreak for most of the variables analyzed. Clinical Impact StatementA deterioration in the general population's mental health during the COVID pandemic has been well established. Nevertheless, some authors consider that cross-sectional studies might be reflecting a temporary phenomenon and postulate resilience as the most common phenomenon long-term. Our longitudinal study describes a peak in mental health symptoms a month after the initial outbreak and a decrease after 6 months, although a complete recovery did not occur. The recovery process might be long and not well known. The study also confirms that women, young and less-educated people, and people suffering from previous psychiatric conditions showed worse mental health.

Structure and flexibility: systemic and explicit assignment extensions foster an inclusive learning environment

“…These findings align with the idea of an inclusive classroom that provides flexibility to help students when unexpected difficulty occurs (Hogan and Sathy, 2022). With the increased attention to mental health issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Ma et al, 2022;Canet-Juric et al, 2023;Klussman et al, 2023;Sánchez-Martín et al, 2023), these results show a promising solution to decreasing stress and improving mental health in the classroom. To analogize, the safety net created by allowing the built-in flexibility of EWP resulted in being able to perform without having to fear the fall.…”

“…It resulted in an increased mental strain on many during the difficult times brought on by a worldwide event that reached deeply into so many homes. Anxiety and depression became more commonplace (Ma et al, 2022;Canet-Juric et al, 2023;Klussman et al, 2023;Sánchez-Martín et al, 2023). Students faced many challenges in online classrooms (Castelli and Sarvary, 2021) and were more likely to feel overwhelmed and seek additional assistance to accomplish their tasks (Gagné et al, 2022;Samji et al, 2022).…”