Adverse Childhood Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Associations with Poor Mental Health and Suicidal Behaviors Among High School Students — Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January–June 2021

Anderson, Kayla N.; Swedo, Elizabeth A.; Trinh, Eva; Ray, Colleen M.; Krause, Kathleen H; Verlenden, Jorge V.; Clayton, Heather B.; Villaveces, Andrés; Massetti, Greta M.; Niolon, Phyllis Holditch

doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7141a2

Cited by 63 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Nevertheless, our findings show that most students were not sleeping enough and that many students concurrently experienced poor mental health and insufficient sleep. Schools can consider addressing sleep duration within a broader strategy to bolster adolescent mental health and learning, including addressing protective factors (11,12). Tables Table 1 • Hispanic • Non-Hispanic Black • Non-Hispanic White • Non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and multiracial a Rather than setting a time limit, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends placing consistent limits on the time spent using media and the types of media for adolescents and ensuring that media does not take the place of adequate sleep, physical activity, and other behaviors essential to health.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep Duration, Mental Health, and Increased Difficulty Doing Schoolwork Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sliwa

Wheaton

et al. 2023

Prev. Chronic Dis.

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What is already known on this topic? Insufficient sleep among adolescents has been associated with lower academic grades, increased health risk behaviors, and poorer physical and mental health. What is added by this report?Most high school students were not sleeping enough during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was correlated with poor mental health. Students who experienced short sleep duration were more likely to report greater difficulty doing schoolwork during the pandemic than before the pandemic.What are the implications for public health practice? Schools can consider including policies and practices known to improve sleep duration within a broader strategy to bolster adolescent mental health and learning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep Duration, Mental Health, and Increased Difficulty Doing Schoolwork Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sliwa

Wheaton

et al. 2023

Prev. Chronic Dis.

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“…In a nationally representative survey of public-and private-high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic, over half of adolescents (55%) reported experiencing emotional abuse by a parent or other adult in the home, 11% reported physical abuse, and 29% reported a parent or other adult at home lost a job (5). The prevalence of poor current mental health and suicide attempts in 2021 were 4 and 25 times as high, respectively, for those adolescents with 4 or more ACEs occurring during the pandemic compared to those without (10). In contrast, research has identi ed "school connectedness"-the sense of being cared for, supported, and belonging at school-as playing a key protective role in students' wellbeing during the pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feasibility of Recruiting and Retaining Adolescents into a Prospective Cohort Study of the Effects of Social Isolation During COVID-19

Kim,

Jergel,

Bai

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Background Social connection throughout the life course is increasingly understood as critically important for mental and physical health. We sought to investigate the feasibility of using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and wearable accelerometers to characterize the effects of social isolation and/or loneliness experienced by adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental and physical health.Methods We recruited 19 participants ages 13–18 from an Adolescent Medicine practice in Atlanta, Georgia. Participants completed surveys at baseline regarding their degree of social isolation and loneliness, as well as their family functioning, school climate, social media use, and COVID-19 experiences. Participants reported on their social isolation, loneliness, social media use, and emotional state up to four times daily for the subsequent 2-week study period using EMA. We also requested participants wear an activity tracker and heart rate measurement device for 14 days to monitor their physical health. Participant feedback was collected via open-ended exit interviews. Feasibility of recruitment/retention, adherence, and exploratory outcome measures were investigated. The pre-specified progression criteria were a recruitment rate of > 30% and a retention rate of > 80%.Results Participants’ ages ranged from 14 to 18 years, and most (13 of 19) identified as female and as Black/African American (16 of 19). Progression criteria were met for recruitment of participants, but not retention. Only 6 participants returned the wearable devices. On average, participants contributed 12 days of EMA data and 8 days of activity tracker/heart rate data. In exploratory analyses, social isolation was correlated with lower school climate, higher COVID-19 experiences, higher depression scores, and lower sleep quality. Loneliness also showed correlation with all these factors except COVID-19 experiences.Conclusions Retention in a cohort study using EMA and wearable accelerometer use was not feasible in this population of adolescents recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic. Baseline survey data did reveal important correlates of social isolation and loneliness that should be explored in future studies. Future research should further partner with adolescents to design longitudinal studies that mitigate barriers related to the pandemic and other factors on subject recruitment and retention.

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“…In addition to parental divorce, which is considered an ACE (Felitti et al, 1998), over 50% of youth reported emotional abuse (being sworn at, insulted, or put down), and 11% reported physical abuse at the hands of a parent or adult in the home (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022). This increased prevalence of ACEs is particularly concerning because youth with four or more ACEs are four times as likely to exhibit poor mental health and 25 times as likely to engage in a suicide attempt compared to peers without a history of ACEs (Anderson et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this high stress and isolated environment, an adolescent's vulnerability to mental health struggles increases significantly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Anderson et al, 2022) report that "data from the 2021 Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES) indicates that 37.1% of U.S. high school students reported poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 19.9% considering and 9.0% attempting suicide in the preceding year." Additionally, 44% of this population endorsed feeling persistently sad or hopeless (Anderson et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The red herring of adolescent mental health

Greenwald O'Brien,

Osman,

Sample

2023

Family Court Review

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An increase in adolescent distress and mental health symptoms has been clearly documented since the COVID-19 pandemic, as has increased exposure to adverse childhood experiences. Layer on top of these stressors being a youth of divorcing or separating high conflict families, and adolescent symptomatology can suddenly become a flashpoint for parental attention, division and conflict. Approaching cases using an ecological and family systems framework is necessary for accurate conceptualization and assessment of best interests in the context of child custody evaluations. Doing so ensures that adolescent mental health does not become a red herring in high conflict cases, leading to undue focus on the adolescent's mental health without considering other salient factors in the case, such as the broader parent conflict. Programs offered at the Center of Excellence for Children, Families & the Law at William James College designed to improve the lives of youth by addressing parental conflict are described. K E Y W O R D S adolescent mental health, child custody evaluations, ecological model, high conflict, high conflict interventions Key points for the family court community • Multiple layers of an adolescent's ecology can create vulnerability to mental health symptomatology, and was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic.• When a youth with mental health issues also lives in the context of high conflict divorcing or separating parents,

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Adverse Childhood Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Associations with Poor Mental Health and Suicidal Behaviors Among High School Students — Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January–June 2021

Cited by 63 publications

References 9 publications

Sleep Duration, Mental Health, and Increased Difficulty Doing Schoolwork Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sleep Duration, Mental Health, and Increased Difficulty Doing Schoolwork Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Feasibility of Recruiting and Retaining Adolescents into a Prospective Cohort Study of the Effects of Social Isolation During COVID-19

The red herring of adolescent mental health

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