What's Happened to Italian Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Preliminary Study on Symptoms, Problematic Social Media Usage, and Attachment: Relationships and Differences With Pre-pandemic Peers

Abstract

Italian adolescents were confined at home for 3 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed them to feelings of fear, uncertainty, and loneliness that may have increased their vulnerability to emotional-behavioral symptoms (e.g., anxiety) and binge-eating attitudes. Potential risk factors for these psychopathological symptoms are problematic social media usage and attachment insecurity. Therefore, this study aimed: (1) to assess emotional-behavioral symptoms, binge eating, problematic social media usage, and attachment representations of adolescents during the pandemic, comparing them with prepandemic similar samples; (2) to investigate relationships among variables, exploring the role of problematic social media usage and insecure attachment as risk factors for more psychopathological symptoms. Participants were 62 community adolescents aged 12–17 years, enrolled through schools, and assessed online through the following measures: Youth Self-Report for emotional-behavioral problems, Binge-Eating Scale for binge eating, Social Media Disorder Scale for problematic social media usage, and the Friends and Family Interview for attachment. The main results were: (1) 9.4% of adolescents showed clinical rates of emotional-behavioral symptoms and 4.8% of binge eating attitudes. The comparison with pre-pandemic samples revealed that pandemic teenagers showed lower internalizing, but higher other problems (e.g., binge drinking, self-destructive behaviors) and more problematic social media usage than pre-pandemic peers. No differences in binge-eating attitudes and attachment were revealed (76% secure classifications). (2) Problematic social media usage was related to more binge eating and emotional-behavioral problems, predicting 5.4% of both delinquent and attention problems. Attachment disorganization predicted 16.5% of internalizing problems, somatic complaints, and social and identity-related problems. In conclusion, confinement did not increase adolescents' internalizing symptoms -i.e., vulnerability to mood disorders of an anxious-depressive type- which even decreased. However, teenagers may have expressed their discomfort through other problems and symptoms of social media disorder. Further studies should explore the role of adolescents' problematic social media usage and attachment insecurity as risk factors for additional psychopathological symptoms.

Social Media Addiction in High School Students: A Cross-Sectional Study Examining Its Relationship with Sleep Quality and Psychological Problems

“…This situation can be interpreted to say that social media use can lead to lack of sleep in students, and that students' prosocial behaviours can decrease. Pandemic adolescents showed higher levels of other problems and a more problematic social media usage than peers before the pandemic (Muzi et al, 2021). Moreover, significant increases are seen in individuals' rates of problematic internet use and of social media use due to the pandemic, and it is stated that this situation creates negative effects in terms of individuals' psychological health (Baltacı et al, 2021;Oliviero et al, 2021).…”

Effects of Coronavirus Fears on Anxiety and Depressive Disorder Symptoms in Clinical and Subclinical Adolescents: The Role of Negative Affect, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Emotion Regulation Strategies

“…Similar results have been found in studies of the general population conducted in Spain (Hidalgo et al, 2020;Sandín et al, 2020cSandín et al, , 2021Gutiérrez-Hernández et al, 2021) and Hispanic American countries (Andrades-Tobar et al, 2021;Mestas et al, 2021) since the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as in children and adolescents (Gómez-Becerra et al, 2020;Orgilés et al, 2020bOrgilés et al, , 2021Pedreira, 2020). The existing literature on the impact of COVID-19 in adolescents is generally limited, and evidences the relevance of researching this issue (e.g., Muzi et al, 2021), including the role of emotion regulation strategies (Velotti et al, 2021).…”

COVID-19 Infection in Children, Infants and Pregnant Subjects: An Overview of Recent Insights and Therapies

“…Sleep disturbances influenced by restriction measures were also recorded: difficulty falling asleep (28%) and a desire to sleep with parents [ 20 ]. All the data confirm the difficulty in adapting to quarantine isolation and stress exposure for children in the development phase, and it would be interesting to evaluate it later to evaluate the consequences, and to improve understanding of the duration of symptoms [ 18 , 20 ].…”

“…At the same time, there was a decrease in the use of drugs, a benefit derived from isolation [ 17 ]. The vulnerability linked to emotional-behavioural symptoms (for example, anxiety) of “pandemic adolescents” has led this population to less internalisation, but they engage in behaviours such as binge drinking, self-destructive behaviours, and obsessive use of social media related to uncontrolled eating attitudes [ 18 ]. The change in eating habits in children and adolescents associated with less or no motor activity contributed to an increase in obesity and being overweight [ 19 ].…”