Socio-ecological resilience relates to lower internalizing symptoms among adolescents during the strictest period of COVID-19 lockdown in Perú

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has touched the lives of adolescents around the world. This longitudinal, observational study followed 1,334 adolescents (11 - 17 yo) to investigate whether personal and/or caregiver resilience relates to changes in internalizing symptoms during six stressful weeks of COVID-19 lockdown in Perú. In this work, we contextualize socio-ecological resilience in relation to culturally-relevant personal and caregiver resources that youth can use to adapt to stressful situations. We found that adolescents who reported higher levels of personal, caregiver, and overall resilience had lower levels of anxiety and depression at week six. We also find that personal, caregiver and overall resilience moderated the change in anxiety across the five week period of lockdown.

A practical guide for researchers and reviewers using the ABCD Study and other large longitudinal datasets

“…For example, recent longitudinal work from 12 samples of youth ages 9–18 in the Netherlands, Peru, and the United States reported significant increases in depressive symptoms during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic ( Barendse et al, 2021 , Racine et al, 2021 ). Increases in internalizing symptoms during COVID-19 pandemic have been reported in other adolescent studies as well ( Crescentini et al, 2020 , Guazzelli Williamson et al, 2021 ). This poses a challenge for researchers who are interested in pursuing questions relating to development and mental health but plan to use data collected during the pandemic.…”