Changes in young adults' mental well-being before and during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic: disparities between ethnic groups in Germany

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial disruptions to the daily lives of young people. Yet knowledge is lacking about changes in mental well-being among young adults, whether those from ethnic minorities were more adversely impacted by the pandemic than the ethnic majority, and the extent to which pandemic-related stressors contributed to any declines in mental well-being. Methods We draw on nationally representative German CILS4COVID data, collected early in the pandemic (N = 3517, Mage = 25). Respondents provided information on mental well-being (psychosomatic complaints, anxiety, depression, life satisfaction) and exposure to pandemic-related stressors (financial worries, health worries, discrimination, contact with COVID-19). Responses on mental well-being were matched to responses from two pre-pandemic waves. Individual fixed effects regressions examined ethnic group differences in changes in mental well-being prior to, and at the early stage of, the pandemic. Path analysis tested the role of pandemic-related stressors in declines in mental well-being. Results Overall, young adults’ mental well-being had improved at the pandemic assessment compared to pre-pandemic assessments, and few ethnic group differences in changes were found. However, greater pandemic-related stressors were associated with worsened mental well-being at the pandemic assessment. Among Asian minorities, indirect effects were found on anxiety via health worries, and on depression via health worries and discrimination. For Turkish, Middle Eastern and African minorities, indirect effects on anxiety and depression were found via health worries. Conclusions We did not find widespread declines in mental well-being among young adults at the early stage of the pandemic, and changes in mental well-being prior to and at the early stage of the pandemic were mostly similar across ethnic German and minority groups. Nevertheless, pandemic-related stressors posed risks for young adults’ mental well-being, particularly increased discrimination and health worries among Asian minorities, and health worries among Turkish, Middle Eastern and African minorities.

Evaluating the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological health of young adults in India

“…Although both the groups deviated from healthy proportions of 80%, 10%, and 10%, the deviation was greater in the COVID-19 group with the proportion in the 'abnormal' category being 16.47%. This observation matches with the Plenty et al suggesting that young adults who reported contact with COVID-19, financial worries, and health worries experienced increased anxiety and depression [29]. For 'impact' scores both the groups were unhealthy.…”

Resilience, well-being and informal and formal support in multi-problem families during the Covid-19 pandemic

“…For instance, people may experience pandemic-related stress due to isolation [ 1 ], unpredictability and daily routine disruptions, increased exposure to information about threats to well-being [ 10 ], and illness, unexpected loss and grief [ 22 ]. Pandemic-related stress subsequently negatively affects mental health [ 3 , 16 , 23 ]. Given the pre-existing risk factors in multi-problem families [ 6 , 7 ], these families are more likely to experience pandemic-related stress [ 4 , 21 ].…”

Learning From Experience: Perceptions of Socio-Emotional Development Among German Students During COVID-19

“…The present qualitative study aims to contribute by adopting a strength-based approach to explore how emerging adults perceive their socio-emotional development during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings supplement statistical results on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the emotional health of emerging adults (Alt et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2020;Plenty et al, 2021;Sun et al, 2020) by identifying socio-emotional developmental gains from the perspective of emerging adults themselves.…”

“…However, despite a growing body of evidence concerning how young people processed their COVID-19 related experiences (Ewing et al, 2022; Farris et al, 2021; Hussong et al, 2021; Velez et al, 2023) little is known about their socio-emotional development from their perspective. Furthermore, previous studies focused mostly on stress factors and negative emotions (Alt et al, 2021; Farris et al, 2021; Plenty et al, 2021), mental health (Ewing et al, 2022; Padilla-Walker et al, 2022; Rogers et al, 2021; van den Berg et al, 2021) and are mainly addressing coping with the first wave of the pandemic (Hussong et al, 2021; Plenty et al, 2021; van den Berg et al, 2021). The present qualitative study aims to contribute by adopting a strength-based approach to explore how emerging adults perceive their socio-emotional development during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”