Assessment of Mental Health of High School Students During Social Distancing and Remote Schooling During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Austria

Abstract

To get the COVID-19 pandemic under control, many countries have imposed lockdown measures or remote schooling. This study assessed mental health in high school students aged 14 to 20 years after 1 semester of attending school remotely and almost a year of social distancing in Austria. MethodsThis cross-sectional study was approved by the local Ethics Committee and was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. 1 This study follows the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) reporting guideline. This cross-sectional study was supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, which informed and invited all schools to participate. Adolescents were recruited to be representative by region. Participants had to agree to the data protection declaration to start the survey, which served as electronic informed consent. Well-being (assessed with the World Health Organization-5 Well-being Index [WHO-5] 2 ), depressive symptoms (assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9] 3 ), anxiety symptoms (assessed with the General Anxiety Disorder-7 [GAD-7] 4 ), sleep quality (assessed with the Insomnia Severity Index [ISI] 5 ), and disordered eating (assessed with the Eating Attitudes Test [EAT-8] 6 ) were assessed via an online survey open from February 3 to February 28, 2021 (eMethods in the Supplement). Smartphone use and its association with mental health were analyzed using SPSS statistical software version 26 (IBM).Descriptive statistics, t tests, χ 2 tests, and univariate analysis of variance were computed. Effect sizes are shown as Hedge g or η 2 . P values were 2-tailed, and statistical significance was set at P = .05.

Mental Health of Apprentices during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Austria and the Effect of Gender, Migration Background, and Work Situation

“…These results are comparable to findings on other young populations in Austria. For example, in a study conducted in February 2021, 55% of school aged adolescents were over the depression cut-off, 47% for anxiety, 23% for insomnia, and 59% for disordered eating [19]. Similar scores were reported in 18-24-year-old adolescents surveyed over the Christmas period in Austria (depression: 50%, anxiety: 35%, insomnia: 25% [7]).…”

“…As expected, female and diverse participants showed poorer mental health than males on all measures, with the exception of likelihood of being over the cut-off for disordered eating (although women had a higher mean score than men). The finding that men show better mental health than other genders is common both within [26] and outside of the COVID-19 pandemic [51], including in younger populations [19], and demonstrates that the gender gap in mental health is already clear in adolescents and young adults. However, this effect seems to have increased in times of the pandemic (e.g., [7]).…”

“…Reviews have summarized the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents' mental health globally [16][17][18] and highlight the need for extensive prevention and management strategies for this age group. A recently published study on the mental health of Austrian school students aged 14 to 20 [19] revealed a high prevalence of mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, and eating disorders, one year after the outbreak of COVID-19, particularly in female and diverse participants.…”

“…A number of previous studies in young people have found poorer mental health in women than men during the pandemic [19,26], and therefore, we took gender into account during the analyses. Additionally, migration background has been found to be a risk factor for poor mental health in adolescents during the pandemic [14].…”

Children’s Psychological Reactions to the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Studies outside the U.S. also point to concern about suicidal ideation and behavior. For example, over one-third (36.9%) of participants in a study of a regionally representative sample of Austrian high school students (14 to 20 years of age) reported suicidal ideation within the last 2 weeks during an extended period of physical distancing [19]. A longitudinal cohort study of a large sample of Chinese children initially assessed before the pandemic in a region considered at low risk for COVID-19 also found increases in non-suicidal self-injury and suicidal ideation and behavior during the pandemic [20].…”