Risk and Protective Factors for Changes in Adolescent Psychosocial Adjustment During COVID‐19

Abstract

The current study examined (1) changes in psychosocial adjustment among adolescents completing two surveys before COVID‐19 and those completing the final survey during COVID‐19 and (2) related risk/protective factors. Participants were 208 US adolescents ( M age = 15.09, SD = 0.50, 48.8% female, 86.1% White; 40.9% COVID group) who completed longitudinal surveys assessing psychosocial adjustment and related risk/protective factors (e.g., emotion regulation, well‐being pursuits). Only adolescents completing Wave 3 during COVID‐19 experienced increases in depressive symptoms, negative affect, and isolation and decreases in positive affect and friendship. Several variables served as risk (i.e., dampening) and protective (i.e., eudaimonic and hedonic motives) factors of these changes. Findings highlight the range of factors that are distinctly associated with negative changes in adolescent adjustment during COVID‐19.

COVID-19 Stressors and Latinx Adolescents’ Mental Health Symptomology and School Performance: A Prospective Study

“…Finally, our findings offer a unique look at how Latinx adolescents are faring one year into the pandemic. In doing so, our findings expand on prior studies that have focused primarily on adjustment outcomes occurring within the first few months of the pandemic’s onset (e.g., Penner et al, 2021 ; Romm et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Consistent with research conducted among adolescents living in Europe (Alt, Reim, & Walper, 2021 ; Gracia et al, 2021 ; Salema-Ara et al, 2021 ), Canada (DeFrance et al, 2021 ) and in low-risk communities in the U.S. (e.g., Deng et al, 2021 ; Romm et al, 2021 ), our results offer some, albeit limited, evidence suggesting COVID-related declines in adolescent well-being. Among this school-based, probability sample of Latinx adolescents, girls experienced increased internalizing symptoms and worse school performance from before to after the onset of the pandemic.…”

“…The team then compared latent change scores for outcomes across these two subsamples. Supporting the idea that COVID led to worse outcomes for adolescents, the researchers found that Time 2 to Time 3 increases in depression, negative affect, and isolation and decreases in positive affect and friendship were significantly stronger for adolescents whose Time 3 data was collected immediately after, as compared to before, the onset of COVID (Romm et al, 2021 ).…”

The Impact of the COVID‐19 Pandemic on Adolescent Emotional, Social, and Academic Adjustment

“…As the lockdown and distancing measures have resulted in a drastic reduction of possibilities for adolescents to meet and hang out with friends at school, at organized activities, and at home and in the neighborhood, important functions of friends and peers in terms of affiliation and support might have considerably declined. Indeed, several studies in the special issue documented that a subgroup of adolescents felt more lonely during the pandemic (e.g., Romm et al., 2021 ) and that loneliness explained the decline in early adolescents’ emotional adjustment during the pandemic (Sabato, Abraham, & Kogut, 2021 ). During the early period of the lockdown, levels of loneliness remained constant (Magis‐Weinberg et al., 2021 ).…”

“…In terms of emotional adjustment and psychopathology, the impact of the pandemic was found to differ across the type of problems: From before to during the first 6 months of the pandemic, adolescent depression and negative affect increased (Hollenstein, Colasante, & Lougheed, 2021; Romm, Park, Hughes, & Gentzler, 2021), but anxiety symptoms (Hollenstein et al., 2021), daily‐life irritability (Janssens et al., 2021), and self‐reported internalizing problems decreased (Bernasco, Nelemans, van der Graaff, & Branje, 2021). Among Swiss young adults, the prevalence of self‐injury did not change between the first lockdown and post‐lockdown, yet domestic violence increased in males (Steinhoff et al., 2021).…”