The Effect of COVID-19 and Related Lockdown Phases on Young Peoples' Worries and Emotions: Novel Data From India

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented stress to young people. Despite recent speculative suggestions of poorer mental health in young people in India since the start of the pandemic, there have been no systematic efforts to measure these. Here we report on the content of worries of Indian adolescents and identify groups of young people who may be particularly vulnerable to negative emotions along with reporting on the impact of coronavirus on their lives. Three-hundred-and-ten young people from North India (51% male, 12–18 years) reported on their personal experiences of being infected by the coronavirus, the impact of the pandemic and its' restrictions across life domains, their top worries, social restrictions, and levels of negative affect and anhedonia. Findings showed that most participants had no personal experience (97.41%) or knew anyone (82.58%) with COVID-19, yet endorsed moderate-to-severe impact of COVID-19 on their academics, social life, and work. These impacts in turn associated with negative affect. Participants' top worries focused on academic attainments, social and recreational activities, and physical health. More females than males worried about academic attainment and physical health while more males worried about social and recreational activities. Thus, Indian adolescents report significant impact of the pandemic on various aspects of their life and are particularly worried about academic attainments, social and recreational activities and physical health. These findings call for a need to ensure provisions and access to digital education and medical care.

Worries About COVID-19 and Adolescents' Mental Health and Life Satisfaction: The Role of Sociodemographics and Social Support

“…Moreover, adolescents were slightly more worried about COVID-19's academic and economic impact than about the family's financial situation. As such, in line with previous studies ( 13 , 14 ), our results underline the importance of addressing the impact of both school-related stress and the economic situation on adolescents' worries.…”

“…The bidimensional structure of worries about COVID-19 in adolescents, comprising worries about infection and worries about academic and economic effects, expands previous findings among US adults that the most relevant worries were the dangers of COVID-19 and the socio-economic impact of the pandemic ( 11 ). Our findings are also in line with a study with adolescents from India showing that the two most common worries were about the impact of COVID-19 on academic achievement (74% of the sample) and on health effects of an infection (41% of the sample) ( 13 ). In the present study, although adolescents reported similar, average levels of both types of worries (i.e., mean scores were around 2, on a 1–4 scale), the means varied on the item level.…”

“…Correspondingly, as adolescents have a lower risk for serious health consequences from COVID-19, their worries for their own health may be lower than for adults, whereas their worries about infecting others may be higher. Recent research indicated that the most common COVID-19-related worries among adolescents are related to the impact of the restrictions on academic careers (i.e., college admissions) and health effects of an infection (i.e., self-infection and family illness) ( 13 ). Other research also identified academic worries as one type of worry related to the COVID-19 pandemic ( 14 ).…”

‘We are unlikely to return to the same world, and I do not want it to destroy my future.’ Young people's worries through the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Beyond the urgency for dedicated health services, our findings underscore that the threshold for closing schools and replace it with distance learning should be kept high. We follow Shukla et al ( 2021 ) advocating the need for investment of resources into a safe opening of schools. Remote teaching and digital technology such as the internet, personal computers, tablets and mobile phones may be suitable for emulating classroom‐like interactions (Bubb & Jones, 2020 ).…”

“…Girls, older youth, migrant youth and youth with lower socio‐economic status (SES) experienced the lockdown as the most challenging (Lehmann et al, 2021 ). For young people, the impact of COVID‐19 suppressive measures on their mental health could be more detrimental in the long run than the infection itself (Shukla et al, 2021 ). Understanding early symptoms of mental health challenges such as worries, and the content and salience of different worries, might inform health interventions that could target vulnerable youth.…”