An Impact Analysis of the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health in a Prospective Cohort of Canadian Adolescents

Abstract

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

Perceived changes in lifestyle behaviours and in mental health and wellbeing of elementary school children during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Canada

“…These results are seemingly not consistent with studies showing modest adverse impact of the pandemic on children and youth's mental health and wellbeing. 50 , 51 For example, in a survey of 166 grade 4 students in South Korea, Choi et al. 52 reported an increase in stress levels along with unchanged life satisfaction, underscoring the importance of high quality parent–child relationship in supporting children's mental health and wellbeing during the pandemic.…”

Self-Esteem, Happiness, and Flourishing in Times of COVID-19: A Study During the Lockdown Period in Ecuador

“…Longitudinal research may also support our findings. For example, a study that evaluated differences in mental health before and during the pandemic showed that, although there was a decline in mental health indicators -including flourishingduring the initial stages of the lockdown measures, they were not significant when compared to the changes from previous years [24]. Maybe, during the pandemic, people had to adapt and learn to manage their circumstances and achieved environmental mastery and personal growth, characteristics related to flourishing [25].…”

“…Some examples of its statements are "I feel that I'm a person of worthy, at least on an equal plane with others" and "On the whole, I am satisfied with myself." After reversing five items and summing the total score, responses are classified into low [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25], medium [26][27][28][29], and high (30-40) levels of self-esteem. In this study, this scale showed a reliability of 0.85.…”

Pandemic-related experiences, mental health symptoms, substance use, and relationship conflict among older adolescents and young adults from Manitoba, Canada

“…Longitudinal studies with data collected prior to and shortly after the initial outbreak have reported mixed findings ( Chen et al, 2021 ; Hawes et al, 2021a ; Magson et al, 2021 ). For example, a study conducted among a longitudinal cohort of adolescents from Ontario and Québec, Canada (mean age of 14.1 years in 2018), concluded that the initial COVID-19 lockdown was not associated with elevated depression and anxiety symptoms ( Belanger et al, 2021 ). Conversely, in a sample of adolescents and young adults (aged 12 to 22 years) from Long Island, New York, Hawes and colleagues (2021a) found that symptoms of anxiety and depression increased in the period of end-of-March to mid-May as compared to pre-COVID-19 assessments.…”