Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Mental Health Outcomes among Youth: A Rapid Narrative Review

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has affected not only physical health but also mental health and psychological wellbeing. This narrative review aimed to map the literature on the psychological impact on the young generation of the COVID-19 pandemic, social restrictions, and extraordinary measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. We performed a systematic search of MEDLINE through PubMed and Web of Science [Science Citation Index Expanded, SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)] of all scientific literature published from May 2020 until 15 March 2021. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 15 articles were included. We conducted a narrative review. The reviewed articles suggested the impact of the pandemic and lockdown measures on young persons for several mental symptoms as well as anxiety, stress, depression, event-specific distress, decrease in psychological wellbeing, and changes in sleep habits. Psychological symptoms were related to the experience of several stressors, such as risk for reduction of academic perspectives, massive e-learning adoption, economic issues, social restrictions, and implications for daily life related to the COVID-19 outbreak. This narrative review points out the negative psychological impact of the pandemic outbreak and the high vulnerability of the young in the development of psychological distress, highlighting the relevant focus on the mental health of young people during the pandemic and the need for structured and tailored psychological support and interventions focused to the improvement of Quality of Life of university students after the pandemic experience.

Portuguese Version of COVID-19 Perceived Risk Scale and COVID-19 Phobia Scale: Psychometric Properties

“…Deng and colleagues [9] found that most COVID-19 patients experience depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances. Cielo and colleagues [11] found a negative psychological impact on, and high vulnerability in, the young in the context of developing psychological distress. The adaptation of the C19PS [15] confirmed the original structure proposed by the authors (20 items distributed by four factors-psychological, psychosomatic, economic, and social factors), although item 20 ("I am unable to curb my anxiety of catching coronavirus from others"), in the original version, saturated in factor 4 (social factor), and in this study, it saturated in factor 1 (psychosomatic factor).…”

“…This unsettling scenario has several direct and indirect effects, including on physical and mental health [7][8][9]. The outbreak has a psychological impact on individuals and society [10], as has been reported in different studies, namely, regarding depression, anxiety, stress [7,11], risk-attitudes [12], fear [13], perceived risk [14] and coronophobia [15]. In fact, Deng and colleagues [9] found that 45% of COVID-19 patients experience depression, 47% anxiety and 34% sleep disturbances.…”

“…Additionally, Wang and colleagues [16] found that the most common psychological problems were somatization symptoms, depression, anxiety, problems of insomnia, and self-mutilating or suicidal thoughts. Cielo and colleagues [11] found a negative psychological impact and a high vulnerability of the young in the development of psychological distress, highlighting the need for structured and tailored psychological support. However, Prati and Mancini [17] stated that the psychological impact of COVID-19 lockdowns is small in magnitude and highly heterogeneous, suggesting that most people are psychologically resilient to their effects.…”

Predictors of Positive and Negative Emotions Experienced by Poles during the Second Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Many analyses performed in different parts of the world have shown that the emotional distress experienced during the pandemic mainly influenced people from younger age groups. A meta-analysis of the research on emotional well-being of young people during the pandemic [36] showed that they are much more threatened with the risk of experiencing anxiety, stress, and depression than older people. In addition, young people experienced problems with sleeping [37], somatization disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorders [38].…”

“…In contrast, one of the predictors of positive emotions was combining work with studies. On the one hand, the simultaneous fulfillment of two tasks is a great challenge, especially due to the risk of losing a job to which young people working in services are often exposed, and due to dynamic changes in the system of education (the necessity to deal with the requirements of online education) [36]. On the other hand, the necessity to fulfil tasks in two social contexts at the same time increases the probability of maintaining social relationships and weakens the sense of isolation, which is one of the sources of anxiety and other disorders [42,43].…”