Mental Health Symptoms in Children and Adolescents during COVID-19 in Australia

Abstract

Objective: COVID-19 has led to disruptions to the lives of Australian families through social distancing, school closures, a temporary move to home-based online learning, and effective lockdown. Understanding the effects on youth mental health is crucial to inform policies to support communities as they face the pandemic and future crises. This paper sought to report on mental health symptoms in Australian children and adolescents during the initial stages of the pandemic (May to November 2020) and to examine its association with child/family characteristics and exposure to the broad COVID-19 environment. Methods: An online longitudinal survey was completed by 1,324 parents and carers of Australian children aged 4 to 17 years. Parents/carers reported on their child’s mental health using five measures, including emotional symptoms, conduct disorder problems, hyperactivity/inattention, anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms. Child/family characteristics and COVID-related variables were measured. Results: Overall, 30.5%, 26.3% and 9.5% of our sample scored in the high to very high range for emotional problems, conduct problems and hyperactivity/inattention, respectively. Similarly, 20.2% and 20.4% of our sample scored in the clinical range for anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms respectively. A child’s pre-existing mental health diagnosis, neurodevelopmental condition and chronic illness significantly predicted parent-reported youth mental health symptoms. Parental mental health symptoms, having a close contact with COVID-19 and applying for government financial assistance during COVID-19 were also significant predictors of youth mental health symptoms. Conclusions: Our findings show that Australian youth experienced considerable levels of mental health symptoms during the initial phase of COVID-19, and highlight the need for targeted, effective support for affected youth and particularly for those with pre-existing vulnerabilities.

Paediatric mental health predictors during COVID-19: Parent- and child-specific vulnerability factors

“…Whittle et al [15] similarly investigated associations between parent-factors and child (5-17 years old) mental health during COVID-19 and found signi cant associations between parental COVID-19-related stress, and parent depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, with increased child internalising and externalising problems. These ndings extend existing literature establishing a clear link between poorer parent mental health with poorer child mental health [16,17] by expanding to the pandemic context [14,18].…”

“…Accommodation may facilitate avoidance by reducing the need for children to implement effective coping strategies, inadvertently inhibiting their coping capacity. However, Sicouri et al [14] found that whilst worried children were more likely to seek parental reassurance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, symptoms were also partially attributed to the broader pandemic experience itself (rather than solely due to parental reassurance/accommodation behaviours). Given the cross-sectional nature of this study, whether accommodation occurs in response to expressed child mental health symptoms or vice versa during a pandemic remains unclear.…”

“…This was surprising given that non-pandemic literature has often indicated females and adolescents may be at greater risk of mental health challenges [31,55]. However, pandemic-speci c research has similarly found little to no association between gender or age with mental health outcomes in paediatric populations [14,15,28]. It is possible that the speci c experiences and characteristics inherent in a pandemic may mediate the traditional age-or gender-related associations with mental health, such as the ongoing exposure to pandemic-related news/impacts and pandemic ubiquity.…”

“…Potential gender and age differences may also represent vulnerability factors in relation to child mental health outcomes during COVID-19. Some studies have found age-related differences in prevalence rates of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms across primary and secondary school-age children during COVID-19 [29], whilst others found no signi cant effects [14]. Findings have also shown mixed effects for gender on mental health outcomes during COVID-19 [15,26,29].…”

Editorial: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of children and adolescents: updates from the last 2 years

“…About 23% of parents who noted their child's mental health as excellent or very good prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, rated their child's emotional symptoms and conduct difficulties as high to very high. ∼16% of parents who reported their child's mental health as excellent or very good prior to the pandemic, reported clinical levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms in their child [5].…”