Examining socioeconomic disparities in changes in adolescent mental health before and during different phases of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Abstract

This study examined socioeconomic disparities in changes in adolescent mental health between fall 2019 (pre‐COVID‐19), spring 2020 (initial coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) phase), and fall 2020 (prevailing COVID‐19 phase). Using data from 1429 adolescents ( M age = 17.9) from tertiary vocational schools in the Netherlands with n = 386 participating in all three waves, linear and latent basis growth curve models were assessed and multigroup analyses conducted. Results showed a small but significant decrease in life satisfaction and small but significant increases in emotional problems, peer relationship problems, conduct problems, and hyperactivity‐inattention problems. For emotional problems and peer relationship problems, increases between pre‐COVID‐19 and the initial COVID‐19 phase were more pronounced than increases between the initial and prevailing COVID‐19 phase. In contrast, linear decreases were found for life satisfaction and linear increases for conduct problems and hyperactivity‐inattention problems over the course of the study. Mental health patterns were largely comparable for adolescents from families with varying socioeconomic status.

The role of social cognitions in the social gradient in adolescent mental health: A longitudinal mediation model

“…The study coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic, which began during data collection. There is emerging international evidence from systematic reviews that lower SES adolescents experienced more negative consequences from the pandemic (Collin-Vézina et al, 2022;Kauhanen et al, 2022), analysis of the sample used for the current study suggests that the impact of the pandemic on adolescent mental health may not have varied strongly by family SES (Stevens et al, 2022).…”

“…Seventh, the study coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic, which began between T1 and T2. However, there is evidence that mental health effects of the pandemic were experienced by our entire sample, regardless of SES (Stevens et al, 2022); so, at this post-pandemic stage it remains unclear whether the pandemic influenced the generalizability of the findings.…”

Socioeconomic hardship, uncertainty about the future, and adolescent mental wellbeing over a year during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…However, these previous findings may not fully explain why, unlike mood, life satisfaction did not change during the pandemic. Like vigor, it could be that life satisfaction was more susceptible to change in the beginning of the pandemic as compared to later stages (Stevens et al., 2022). Unfortunately, in the present study life satisfaction was not assessed at the first time point.…”

“…Many prior studies showed that adolescents with low family income or low socioeconomic status were disproportionally hit by the pandemic (Creswell et al., 2021; Li et al., 2021; O'Connor et al., 2021; Shanahan et al., 2020), but there are also a few studies with mixed results. For example, Stevens and colleagues (2022) showed that during the pandemic (between 2019 and fall 2020) adolescent life satisfaction decreased linearly, but these patterns (i.e., slopes) did not differ between the low or high socioeconomic groups. Another study reported that greater pandemic related economic concerns were associated with declines in anxiety and depression levels over time among some children and adolescents (Cost et al., 2022).…”

Socio‐emotional adjustment throughout the COVID‐19 pandemic: A longitudinal study of elementary school‐aged children from low‐income neighbourhoods

“…Still, distinctive studies on children with pre‐pandemic risks are scarce to date and limited in their study approaches and age groups (e.g., Adegboye et al., 2021; Stevens et al., 2022; Vallejo‐Slocker et al., 2020). In particular, the distinctive studies on younger children exclusively analyzed parent survey data on child socio‐emotional distress.…”