Young people’s mental and social distress in times of international crisis: evidence from helpline calls, 2019–2022
Abstract We document mental and social distress of children, adolescents and adults, using data on 3 million calls to German helplines between January 2019 and May 2022. High-frequency data from crisis helpline logs offer rich information on the evolution of “revealed distress” among the most vulner...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39064-y |
| _version_ | 1797774206949130240 |
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| author | Marius Brülhart Valentin Klotzbücher Rafael Lalive |
| author_facet | Marius Brülhart Valentin Klotzbücher Rafael Lalive |
| author_sort | Marius Brülhart |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract We document mental and social distress of children, adolescents and adults, using data on 3 million calls to German helplines between January 2019 and May 2022. High-frequency data from crisis helpline logs offer rich information on the evolution of “revealed distress” among the most vulnerable, unaffected by researchers’ study design and framing. Distress of adults, measured by the volume of calls, rose significantly after both the outbreak of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In contrast, the overall revealed distress of children and adolescents did not increase during those crises. The nature of young people’s concerns, however, changed more strongly than for adults after the COVID-19 outbreak. Consistent with the effects of social distancing, call topics of young people shifted from problems with school and peers to problems with family and mental health. We find the share of severe mental health problems among young people to have increased with a delay, in the second and third year of the pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T22:17:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-368ea5e6069f459291273939d61b2041 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T22:17:40Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-368ea5e6069f459291273939d61b20412023-07-23T11:12:25ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-07-0113111210.1038/s41598-023-39064-yYoung people’s mental and social distress in times of international crisis: evidence from helpline calls, 2019–2022Marius Brülhart0Valentin Klotzbücher1Rafael Lalive2Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne), University of LausanneInstitute of Economics, University of FreiburgFaculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne), University of LausanneAbstract We document mental and social distress of children, adolescents and adults, using data on 3 million calls to German helplines between January 2019 and May 2022. High-frequency data from crisis helpline logs offer rich information on the evolution of “revealed distress” among the most vulnerable, unaffected by researchers’ study design and framing. Distress of adults, measured by the volume of calls, rose significantly after both the outbreak of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In contrast, the overall revealed distress of children and adolescents did not increase during those crises. The nature of young people’s concerns, however, changed more strongly than for adults after the COVID-19 outbreak. Consistent with the effects of social distancing, call topics of young people shifted from problems with school and peers to problems with family and mental health. We find the share of severe mental health problems among young people to have increased with a delay, in the second and third year of the pandemic.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39064-y |
| spellingShingle | Marius Brülhart Valentin Klotzbücher Rafael Lalive Young people’s mental and social distress in times of international crisis: evidence from helpline calls, 2019–2022 Scientific Reports |
| title | Young people’s mental and social distress in times of international crisis: evidence from helpline calls, 2019–2022 |
| title_full | Young people’s mental and social distress in times of international crisis: evidence from helpline calls, 2019–2022 |
| title_fullStr | Young people’s mental and social distress in times of international crisis: evidence from helpline calls, 2019–2022 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Young people’s mental and social distress in times of international crisis: evidence from helpline calls, 2019–2022 |
| title_short | Young people’s mental and social distress in times of international crisis: evidence from helpline calls, 2019–2022 |
| title_sort | young people s mental and social distress in times of international crisis evidence from helpline calls 2019 2022 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39064-y |
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