Physically isolated but socially connected: Psychological adjustment and stress among adolescents during the initial COVID-19 crisis.

By Wendy E. Ellis, Tara M. Dumas, Lindsey M. Forbes. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 2020

745 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We are facing an unprecedented time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Measures have been taken to reduce the spread of the virus, including school closures and widespread lockdowns. Physical isolation combined with economic instability, fear of infection, and uncertainty for the future has had a profound impact on global mental health. For adolescents, the effects of this stress may be heightened due to important developmental characteristics. Canadian adolescents (n = 1,054; M age= 16.68, SD = 0.78) completed online surveys and responded to questions on stress surrounding the COVID-19 crisis, feelings of loneliness and depression, as well as time spent with family, virtually with friends, doing schoolwork, using social media, and engaging in physical activity. Results showed that adolescents are very concerned about the COVID-19 crisis and are particularly worried about schooling and peer relationships. COVID-19 stress was related to more loneliness and more depression, especially for adolescents who spend more time on social media. Beyond COVID-19 stress, more time connecting to friends virtually during the pandemic was related to greater depression, but family time and schoolwork was related to less depression. For adolescents with depressive symptoms, it may be important to monitor the supportiveness of online relationships. Results show promising avenues to stave off loneliness, as time with family, time connecting to friends, as well as physical activity were related to lower loneliness, beyond COVID-19 stress. These results shed light on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for adolescents and document possible pathways to ameliorate negative effects.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e8e5c510bcd0d4df04ffc5439718cb04bbbcaaf3

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Citations in the corpus

Mental Health of Children and Adolescents Amidst COVID-19 and Past Pandemics: A Rapid Systematic Review (2021, methodology): “Ellis et al. (2020) used a regression model to interpret their findings and revealed that depression in female adolescents was significantly higher (β 0.15, p < 0.001) and that loneliness was also significantly more prevalent in female adolescents (β 0.08, p < 0.001) [25].”
Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health in Adolescents: A Systematic Review (2021, background): “Five studies (31%) addressed depression among non-special populations and identified an association between the pandemic and depression [17,25,27,28,30].”
Review: Mental health impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on children and youth – a systematic review (2021, background): “Six studies reported occurrence of pandemic-related suicidal ideation in children and adolescents (Banati et al., 2020; Ellis et al., 2020; Jefsen et al., 2020; Matovu et al., 2021; Murata et al., 2021; Zhang, Zhang, et al., 2020).”
Social Isolation and Stress as Predictors of Productivity Perception and Remote Work Satisfaction during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Concern about the Virus in a Moderated Double Mediation (2020, background): “From one point of view, working from home because of the pandemic may decrease the fear of becoming infected, enhance the possibility of spending time with family members, decreasing perception of loneliness and depression [37], protect against exposure to continuous conversations with colleagues ab”
The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on internet use and escapism in adolescents (2020, background): “, 2020), particularly when considering their engagement with online activities and social media to maintain interaction (Ellis et al., 2020).”
COVID-19 and Student Well-Being: Stress and Mental Health during Return-to-School (2020, background): “Indeed, Ellis et al. (2020) found that, in their sample of 14- to 18-year-olds, stress-related to COVID19 was associated with more loneliness and higher symptoms of mental health disorders (e.g., depression), while those who spent more time with family and were more focused on schoolwork had fewer…”