This paper reviews the global effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the mental health of children and adolescents in South Korea, the U.S., Japan, and China. We reviewed research on deteriorated mental health, including increased suicide, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm. Various studies have shown that students' mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the number of students who committed suicide has significantly increased in the U.S. and Japan. Factors such as prior mental health status, change in daily routine, reduced physical activity, excessive screen time, overuse of electronic devices, and reduced social support have been reported to have a significant effect. The chain of deteriorating mental health among the youth began at the onset of COVID-19, social distancing, and school closure. As youths began to stay at home instead of going to school, they lost opportunities to connect with their friends or teachers, who could provide support outside of their homes. Young people spent less time on physical activity and more time online, which damaged their sleeping schedule and daily routine. In preparing for the post-pandemic phase, we should thoroughly analyze the long-term effects of the pandemic on youth mental health, while simultaneously tackling current imminent issues.

This study examined the occurrence of emotion types and the contents and meanings of individual emotion types to improve the quality of life of South Korean senior patients in convalescent hospitals. This research is a sequential mixed study in which we conducted emotion frequency and content analyses with 20 elderly resident patients in a convalescent hospital. In the emotion frequency analysis, we performed emotion occurrence frequency analysis and clustering to create groups of subjects that showed similar distributions of emotions. The study results found that South Korean senior patients displayed six major emotions: joy, sorrow, anger, surprise, fear, and tranquility, including mixed emotional states. In the emotion content analysis, we used NVivo to categorize and analyze the interview contents based on emotion types. The study results show the characteristics of emotions according to patients’ treatment and recovery, life within narrow boundaries, relationships with new people and family, and the appearances of themselves that they could not easily but must accept. In addition, these characteristics appeared in health, environment, relationships, and psychological structures. Ultimately, the study results suggest that improving the quality of life of South Korean senior patients requires understanding of their emotions and examining diverse emotions in multiple dimensions.