Exploring adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 crisis – strengths and difficulties
IntroductionThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has significantly impacted children and adolescents, leading to mental health challenges. Knowledge on their resources and difficulties is crucial and there is a need for valid instruments to assess their psychosocial condition especially in this exceptional situa...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1357766/full |
| _version_ | 1827293936543072256 |
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| author | Johanna K. Loy Janina Klam Jörg Dötsch Julia Frank Stephan Bender |
| author_facet | Johanna K. Loy Janina Klam Jörg Dötsch Julia Frank Stephan Bender |
| author_sort | Johanna K. Loy |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has significantly impacted children and adolescents, leading to mental health challenges. Knowledge on their resources and difficulties is crucial and there is a need for valid instruments to assess their psychosocial condition especially in this exceptional situation. We assessed psychopathological symptoms using the SDQ during the pandemic, comparing to pre-pandemic data. Our study aims to understand adolescents’ strengths and difficulties amidst COVID-19, evaluating the SDQ’s utility in crisis settings.MethodsWithin the German school-based surveillance study (“B-Fast”), we assessed behavioral strengths and difficulties in 664 adolescents aged 11–17 years during the peak of the German COVID-19 pandemic using the validated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for both external and self-assessed data collection. Data were collected between November 2020 and April 2021. We compared self-assessed SDQ-scores to pre-pandemic data from a comparable sample and examined adolescent classification as “normal” or “borderline/abnormal” based on both external and self-assessed SDQ subscale scores using established cut-off values. Additionally, we conducted sex and rater-based score comparisons.ResultsIn our study, we observed a significant worsening of “Emotional Symptoms” compared to pre-pandemic levels, while “Conduct Problems” and “Prosocial Behavior” showed improvement. Variations in classification to “normal” and “abnormal” emerged when applying German versus British cut-off values. Females scored higher on “Emotional Symptoms” while males scored higher on “Hyperactivity Symptoms.” Correlations between external and self-assessed SDQ ratings ranged from 0.43 (p < 0.001) for “Prosocial Behavior” among girls to 0.62 (p < 0.001) for “Peer Problems” among boys, indicating moderate to high consistency.Discussion/conclusionOur study contributes to understanding the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on German adolescents. Compared to other symptoms, we observed a particular worsening in “Emotional Symptoms” based on our data. Despite the moderate correlation between parental and self-reported evaluations, there appears to be a certain discrepancy in the perception of adolescent quality of life. Therefore, it seems prudent to assess both the external and self-reported evaluations and amalgamate the results from both parties to obtain a comprehensive problem profile of the individual. These findings underscore the importance of using country-specific cutoff values and reaffirm the utility of the SDQ as a valuable assessment tool, even within the unique circumstances posed by a pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T13:48:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-96692a22a19347a5bddea1fbcb769c94 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-2565 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T13:48:25Z |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-96692a22a19347a5bddea1fbcb769c942024-04-04T05:06:58ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652024-04-011210.3389/fpubh.2024.13577661357766Exploring adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 crisis – strengths and difficultiesJohanna K. Loy0Janina Klam1Jörg Dötsch2Julia Frank3Stephan Bender4Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyDepartment of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyInstitute of Medical Statistics and Computational Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyIntroductionThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has significantly impacted children and adolescents, leading to mental health challenges. Knowledge on their resources and difficulties is crucial and there is a need for valid instruments to assess their psychosocial condition especially in this exceptional situation. We assessed psychopathological symptoms using the SDQ during the pandemic, comparing to pre-pandemic data. Our study aims to understand adolescents’ strengths and difficulties amidst COVID-19, evaluating the SDQ’s utility in crisis settings.MethodsWithin the German school-based surveillance study (“B-Fast”), we assessed behavioral strengths and difficulties in 664 adolescents aged 11–17 years during the peak of the German COVID-19 pandemic using the validated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for both external and self-assessed data collection. Data were collected between November 2020 and April 2021. We compared self-assessed SDQ-scores to pre-pandemic data from a comparable sample and examined adolescent classification as “normal” or “borderline/abnormal” based on both external and self-assessed SDQ subscale scores using established cut-off values. Additionally, we conducted sex and rater-based score comparisons.ResultsIn our study, we observed a significant worsening of “Emotional Symptoms” compared to pre-pandemic levels, while “Conduct Problems” and “Prosocial Behavior” showed improvement. Variations in classification to “normal” and “abnormal” emerged when applying German versus British cut-off values. Females scored higher on “Emotional Symptoms” while males scored higher on “Hyperactivity Symptoms.” Correlations between external and self-assessed SDQ ratings ranged from 0.43 (p < 0.001) for “Prosocial Behavior” among girls to 0.62 (p < 0.001) for “Peer Problems” among boys, indicating moderate to high consistency.Discussion/conclusionOur study contributes to understanding the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on German adolescents. Compared to other symptoms, we observed a particular worsening in “Emotional Symptoms” based on our data. Despite the moderate correlation between parental and self-reported evaluations, there appears to be a certain discrepancy in the perception of adolescent quality of life. Therefore, it seems prudent to assess both the external and self-reported evaluations and amalgamate the results from both parties to obtain a comprehensive problem profile of the individual. These findings underscore the importance of using country-specific cutoff values and reaffirm the utility of the SDQ as a valuable assessment tool, even within the unique circumstances posed by a pandemic.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1357766/fullCOVID-19 pandemicadolescentsmental healthSDQ-questionnairecrisismental health assessment |
| spellingShingle | Johanna K. Loy Janina Klam Jörg Dötsch Julia Frank Stephan Bender Exploring adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 crisis – strengths and difficulties Frontiers in Public Health COVID-19 pandemic adolescents mental health SDQ-questionnaire crisis mental health assessment |
| title | Exploring adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 crisis – strengths and difficulties |
| title_full | Exploring adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 crisis – strengths and difficulties |
| title_fullStr | Exploring adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 crisis – strengths and difficulties |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 crisis – strengths and difficulties |
| title_short | Exploring adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 crisis – strengths and difficulties |
| title_sort | exploring adolescent mental health during the covid 19 crisis strengths and difficulties |
| topic | COVID-19 pandemic adolescents mental health SDQ-questionnaire crisis mental health assessment |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1357766/full |
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