The Impact of Covid-19 on Mental Health of College Students, High School Students, Frontline Workers, and Adolescents
Introduction
The novel coronavirus disease became a global health threat in 2019. The coronavirus led to a pandemic that took a toll on the world’s health and well-being. The World Health Organization declared a state of health emergency starting on January 30th, 2020. The worldwide pandemic has taken a toll on individuals across all boards.
The Covid-19 outbreak was sudden, and so was the transition to being in quarantine for a long time. During these times of isolation, many things changed in everyone’s lives and the world at large. The effects of Covid-19 are not just physical but also mental, which makes this something important to discuss. Many stressors arose from the pandemic, stressors like fear of getting infected, financial instability, among many others, which in turn led to the increasing prevalence of mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.
Covid-19 has harmed everyone’s mental health, and its impact has been on everyone across different demographics. To get an empirical scoop of the extent of this issue, we decided to search for studies and research that discuss the impact of covid 19 on the mental health of our chosen demographics. Our literature review will focus on the studies found on this topic that examine the mental health status of college students, high school students, frontline workers, immigrants, and adolescents.
Methodology
To find studies done on the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of college students, I searched for articles from the CCNY Library database (EBSCOHOST) using keywords like “coronavirus’’, “mental health”, “college students”. This proved futile because articles that popped up were based on surveys; there was no scholarly article discussing this issue. I went ahead to Google scholar using the exact keywords, yet the results were the same. I did not want to use Google because most articles are not scholar-based. Some many surveys and articles discuss the prevalence of mental health issues in college students before the pandemic. There are more empirical surveys than scholarly articles on the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of college students, which means more awareness needs to be made, more scholars have to write about it.
Research about the mental health of high school students was found by looking for papers in the school database and Ebsco about mental health and covid-19. I started to dig deeper trying to find articles on quarantine for high school students and their mental health. I used keywords like “mental health”, “covid-19”, and “high school student”. I found a lot of papers about the mental health of high school students, but they didn’t have research done in them with surveys or other methods of collecting data and information. I finally found a few papers that had studies done on high school students and they had their data shown too.
To find research done on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the mental health of frontline workers, I used the CUNY libraries database to find articles. Specifically, the database Academic Search Complete on CUNY libraries was used to find the necessary articles. The Academic Search Complete database led me to the EBSCOhost journal where all three articles were found. The keywords used were “mental health,” “COVID-19 or coronavirus or 2019-ncov or sars-cov-2 or cov-19,” and “frontline staff or healthcare staff or healthcare professionals or healthcare workers.” The results of these keywords produced a total of 981 results.
To collect relevant data on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the results were filtered to “full text,” “English,” and “scholarly peer-reviewed articles,” and a year limit from 2019 to the present (2021). The four filters produced a total of 475 results. The three articles chosen discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of individuals who are actively on the frontlines of the pandemic.
A search was done on the contributing authors of each article and on the publication source to verify the credibility of the articles. After careful consideration, I determined that the three articles are credible sources.
To find research on adolescents and their mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic, Google Scholar and CCNY libraries database was used to locate the necessary studies. Unfortunately, most of the research found on CCNY libraries just missed the mark on discovering research on adolescents during Covid-19. I used Google Scholar instead because of the amount of study able to be located with its usage. The keywords used to find said information were “adolescents’ mental health during Covid-19” and “adolescent depression during Covid-19” and “adolescent anxiety during Covid-19” and finally “adolescent depression and anxiety during Covid-19”. The results with these keywords gave more than a million results. However, I found free or institutional access (of which my institution does allow) to research papers on my subject on the very first page.
To collect the reasonable and logical resulting studies that correlate with the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on adolescents’ mental health, the results were filtered to “full text,” “English,” and “scholarly peer-reviewed articles,” and a year limit from 2019 to tEnglishent day. Because of the use of Google Scholar, these limiters still produced millions of results. However, all the necessary ones were brought into the first and second pages, and I found the relevant studies practically without effort.
The three articles reflected the research on adolescent mental health. The first study reflects the initial research related to the onset of the pandemic to try to measure the effects and tribulations adolescents may be facing with its onset. The second study attempts to test the research of an optimal therapeutic practice that could safeguard adolescents from depression and anxiety, mainly that of SSIs or single session interventions. The final study focused on increasing the sample size of initial reports on adolescents’ mental health to understand better the extent of the damage to adolescents and their mental health. After considering their strengths and limitations, I concluded that all these studies do their due diligence and are credible sources to look at their research.
Impact of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of College Students
This generation, Gen Z, is said to be more mentally stressed than previous generations. Over the years, mental health issues have become more and more prevalent among college students. Many factors cause mental health issues, such as stress from school workload to pressure from parents, and the most common mental health crisis are anxiety and depression. The Covid-19 outbreak was sudden, and so was the transition to online classes. Adjusting to online learning amidst many other factors has significantly impacted college students’ mental health.
The article titled, “The psychological impact of COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China” by Cao W, Fang Z, Hou G, Han M, Xu X, Dong J, Zheng J, is a study conducted in China to know the mental situation of college students during the pandemic and know the impact of the abrupt change. The study was conducted at Changzhi Medical College with undergraduate students. The study was anonymous: 7,143 students completed the questionnaire and were included in the final analysis. In the study, it was made sure that the questionnaire packet included demographic questions, along with psychological inquiries about COVID-19. The survey also included questions about students’ access to social support. Lastly, the study had students respond to the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7). The ethics committee approved the study at Changzhi Medical College. A cross-sectional survey conducted the study’s methodology. Also, this study hypothesizes, participants voluntarily gave their information. The survey results were separated by demographic data and data regarding anxiety levels. Two-thirds were women from the participants. In Hubei, all participants lived with 43,83% of those living in the province’s rural zones. Of the respondents surveyed, 95.4% lived with their spouse, with 52.86% showing a lack of steady income, and 99.54% had no relatives who are/were infected with COVID-19.
Regarding the mental health of students, of the 7,143 college students, three-quarters showed no symptoms of anxiety (75.1%). Of the others surveyed, 21.3% displayed mild anxiety, 2.7% showed moderate anxiety, and 0.9% displayed severe anxiety concerning COVID-19. The researchers studied the demographic responses to indicate what influences anxiety levels. They concluded that students living alone and students living without a steady income had an increased level of anxiety. Also, according to the study, gender and region did not influence anxiety outcomes. It was also determined that gender and part did not affect anxiety results. The authors did further analysis and discovered that economic stability and delayed studies added to the causes of increased anxiety levels among students. Also, physical distance from classmates throughout the extended period of quarantine is likely to increase students’ anxiety levels gradually.
The article is a scholarly article written by professionals, and the report contains information about the authors, which proves its credibility. The study was conducted in China which the results from the study are limited to students in China alone. It can’t be generalized for students who live in other parts of the world. This study did not acknowledge that some students may have dealt with mental health issues before the pandemic. The authors used extensive demographics were used in this paper, which adds credibility to this article. The article was published in March 2020, and there is no follow-up article to date. The content of the article is true to the title of the article.
The article “Impact of Covid-19 on students’ mental health” by Active Minds is an infographic survey data conducted in April 2020. The survey included 3239 students. These students ranged from high schoolers to college students. This study is made poster-like with links embedded in the texts leading to an infographic specific to college students. On this page, it is confirmed that of all the 3239 students surveyed, 2086 were college students. According to the survey, 1 in 5 college students and 80% of college students report that covid-19 has significantly worsened their mental health. The survey mentions the most common ways covid-19 affected students’ lives, and the results showed that 91% said stress and anxiety, 48% said financial setback. Also, the study included how self-care has been challenging for students, and the results showed that 76% find it challenging to maintain a routine, and 63% have trouble staying connected with others. The study also includes that 85% find it challenging to focus on school and work despite distractions. Towards the end of the article, the researchers included that students want college administration to focus on increased academic support, more mental health resources, and creating more opportunities for social connections.
The survey method was not mentioned, but looking at the date it was conducted, it was most likely conducted online. The only demographic used is the respondents used were students, no further demographic. The demographic used for the survey was not extensive. Other demographics could, and the results may not apply to all college students. Different demographics could have affected the impact of the pandemic on a student’s mental health. Demographics like class, the neighborhood the student lives in, and the environment in the student’s home. If all these demographics were considered, the survey would have been more credible. This study did not acknowledge that some students may have dealt with mental health issues before the pandemic. An upside for this study is that there was a follow-up study conducted in September 2020. Sadly, the result reveals that the pandemic threatens to impact student mental health adversely. The new research shows that one in four students believe their depression has dramatically elevated. The study is well organized and quite informative than most. The study could be made into a poster, and it is easy to read. Also, the article’s content is accurate to the topic, and although the article discusses other issues aside from the main topic, there is no diversion. The author was on point. Overall, it’s a good article.
The article “Effects of Covid-19 on college students mental health in the United States: Interview Survey Study” by Son C, Hedge S, Smith A, Wang X, and Sasangohar F, focuses on how mental health impedes academic success. The article was published on March 9th, 2020. The article starts with the abstract, then the introduction, the method, the results, and the discussion, which I will mention briefly. According to the article, Texas A&M University reported that anxiety has always been the most common diagnosis of mental health issues, and in 2018, 50% of students reported anxiety. The article states that the pandemic accentuates new stressors, including sudden lifestyle changes, constraints on social activities due to quarantine, and financial loss, among many others. The article focuses on identifying significant stressors caused by the pandemic and their effects. Participants for the study were students from a large university in Texas, the United States, and most interviews were conducted about one. A month after the stay-at-home order in April 2020.
Participants were recruited through email, text messaging, and snowball sampling. The only criteria for participation were that participants are enrolled as undergraduate students in the university at the time of the interview. None of the authors conducted the survey. Trained undergraduate researchers conducted the study. All interviews were conducted via Zoom and were audio-recorded, and the recordings were later transcribed. Demographic information like age, gender, year of college, and program of study were collected before the interview. Two hundred sixty-six students were initially recruited for the study; 17 retreated, leaving 249 students. For the final analysis, of the 249 students, students with missing data points and graduate students were excluded, leaving 195 participants; data from 195 participants was used. Results showed that 71% indicated stress and anxiety due to the pandemic and other stressors contributing to elevated stress levels, depressive thoughts, and anxiety. 91% reported that the pandemic harmed their mental health, 89% have difficulty concentrating, 82% are worried about their academic performance, and 86% have disrupted sleeping patterns. The authors mentioned their limitations, including that the sample size for the interview surveys was relatively small compared to typical survey-only studies. However, the survey interview approach affords the capture of elaboration. Secondly, the sample used is from one large university, and findings may not generalize to all college students; most of our participants were from engineering majors. Lastly, the researchers did not analyze how student mental health problems differ by demographic characteristics such as age, gender, academic year, major, or other personal and social demographics like income, where the student resides, religion, use of substances. The authors of this article mentioned that their future work would fix their limitations. The authors said that they would use more comprehensive samples and consider more extensive demographics. Although only one university was used for this paper, it can be inferred that the finding from this article can be generalized for other colleges/ university students in the United States since the university used is also in the United States. This article does not have a follow-up that should have been done earlier this year (2021). Overall, it was an extensive and easy to understand article
All the articles reviewed above are related to the topic “impact of covid-19 on college student’s mental health, and they all did an excellent job at researching and explaining the issue. Also, the articles point out self-help resources available to students amid the pandemic. Overall, the pandemic has harmed college student’s mental health, and it doesn’t seem to get better.
Impact of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of High School Students
The COVID-19 Pandemic has affected people all around the world. Covid-19 didn’t just affect people physically but also mentally. It also affected people that didn’t get covid because of the global lockdown. A lot of people weren’t doing good mentally. High School students across the world are stressed out, and with the lockdown that many countries have implemented, the mental health of these students has been severely affected. The world should be concerned for the well-being of high school students because it is their growing period, and they are the future of the world. We should be focusing on these students because their mental health is essential. Poor mental health can lead to risky behaviors like drinking alcohol or using drugs, it can even ruin your relationships with the people around you, and sometimes it can even lead to suicide.
A study was done in Greece during the covid-19 nationwide lockdown. They did surveys on seniors to see their mental health during this lockdown, varying from depression to anxiety. The paper’s name is “Adding stress to the stressed: Senior high school students’ mental health amidst the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown in Greece”. The article has outstanding organization and is neatly written. They have the abstract in the beginning, and then it goes into the introduction where they introduce Covid-19 and then about mental health. They start to also go into what high school students in Greece have to go through to get into universities and how the lockdown has affected them severely. They then go on to their data collection methods, sampling and analyzing the data. They give the results and compare them, and they finally end off on the discussion of the paper where they have their implications and how future studies can be done.
They constructed a brief survey that was available electronically that used a secure web-based application. It was a self-selection sampling procedure where the survey was publicized and sent email invitations to students in cram schools. The students were told the goal of the study, the reasons for it, and how their data would be collected. There were a total of 459 students who completed the survey. Some reported not taking entrance exams, and some took it a second time, so they were excluded. In the end, 442 students responded; three hundred four were girls and 138 boys. They also had courses they took where they were all around the same number in the humanities, science, economic, and health science courses. The questions were divided into four parts; the first was demographic characteristics, the second was anxiety and depressive symptoms over the first two weeks of February (before nationwide lockdown). The third question was anxiety and depressive symptoms during lockdown to when they did the surveys, which were around November, and lastly, distress experienced during the lockdown. They measured anxiety using the “7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7),” which is certified in the adolescent populations. They organized the results in a chart with all of the data from the four parts separated into different charts, and within each one compared the sex, anxiety, and depression data. They did an excellent job in organizing their data and then comparing them too. They concluded that depression significantly rose from 48.5% to 63.8% from before the lockdown to after. Severe depression increased from 10% to 17%. Anxiety increased from 23.8% to 49.5%, and severe anxiety went from 3.8% to 20.5%. This is a significant problem that they also recognized and should be dealt with immediately.
They also included their limitations. The authors state how since the data was collected from online surveys, random sampling did not occur, which brought in sampling bias. There could have been many students that saw the study but chose not to take it. They brought in many factors that could have affected or done affect the surveys and their results. They also go into talking about how future studies should be done. This study was done very significantly, and there were some limitations because of the lockdown, but in the end, from how they got their data to how they organized and compared the data, everything was good. They also added in their weaknesses and how things are out of their control that affects the data. In the future, they can broaden the sampling and not just senior high school students but all high school students in general. They could also add ways to support students suffering from depression and anxiety to get some help.
Another research is written about the mental health of High school students during the COVID-19 outbreak and was written in December 2020. The paper’s name is “Prevalence of and factors associated with mental health problems and suicidality among senior high school students in rural China during the COVID-19 outbreak” This paper also did a survey and research on the mental health of high school students during the covid-19 lockdown. The outline of the article is well explained; they begin with a short introduction and then immediately go into the methods they use to gather their information. They then present the results and give a table showing the data. They discuss and talk about how and why the mental health of high school students is lacking and what needs to be done about it. This paper is short and concise and would be good if someone wants background knowledge on the mental health of high school students. It doesn’t have that much discussion on the data and is just really to the point.
The method they used to get data was a study on five senior high schools in a rural area of China called the “Anhui Province”.The participants were chosen randomly, so the sampling method was a random cluster sample. They were asked questions to measure anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. They used “The 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), and the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R).” From a total of 859 high school students from the study, 524 were left behind. Most of the students were male (61.4) and aged 16 years or lower (79.4%). 87.1% had siblings, and 54.9% had poor academic records. The results showed that 71.5% presented symptoms of depression, 54.5% showed signs of anxiety, and 85.5% showed symptoms of PTSD. 31.3% showed suicidal thoughts, and 7.5% had already attempted suicide.
The study does an excellent job of showing how these students have poor mental health but doesn’t show how covid has affected it. They didn’t compare it to before the pandemic, so they just got the results and gave them out. They didn’t give much information on how they surveyed the students electronically or a hand paper from the mail.
There wasn’t anything in the paper about their limitations and things that could have affected their data. Like the other study, they could have surveyed from before the pandemic and compared it to the data they got during the pandemic. They give information on the next steps and tell us that interventions should help specific students in the pandemic but give no example. This paper was concise and did have good data from it, but it is the first step. A future study can compare this data with maybe past data from the same area about mental health or even future data where everyone is already used to the lockdown, or there is no more lockdown.
The last paper I found while researching is called “Impact of COVID‐19 Pandemic on Students’ Mental Health from 2 Semi‐Rural High Schools in Georgia”. The article starts with an abstract that briefly gives some background knowledge about Covid-19, mental health, and the closure of public schools. They then provide a brief description of the methods they used, the results they got, and then the conclusion.
The paper then starts with an introduction that goes in-depth about the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on people. It starts to introduce online learning once the lockdown was implemented at the beginning of the Covid. They finally begin talking about mental health, like what it is and how covid has affected it worldwide. The author also talks about what they want to do in this study and what they will explore. They then go on to talk about the methods they used. They have the study design, study setting and participants, the instruments they used, the procedure they took, and how they analyzed the data. The author gives the results in multiple tables and explains each of the tables. They go on to the discussion where they talk about the results and how it contributes to examining the impacts of covid. They even talk about their implications and things that could have affected their data and even things they did poorly.
The method they used to gather data was a cross-sectional survey that was online. It was conducted at two public high schools in Georgia. There were a total of 3946 people eligible to take the study, but only 761 did participate. All the students who participated were allowed to enter a raffle to win 1 out of 50 $25 Amazon gift cards. The survey consisted of 54 optional multiple-choice questions, varying from responses on covid to stress and mental health. They saw that more girls responded than boys, and the response rates decreased as the grade level went up. They give us the following steps and things that can help high school students, like intervention programs and items to support the students in their time of crisis. They even give information on what future researchers should gather data on based on their findings. This paper is very organized and sophisticated. They provide a lot of information on what they were studying, how they studied it, what they found, the next steps in the research, and even implications on their studies.
All in all, the effect of Covid-19 on a high school student’s mental health has been very devastating. The lockdown also hasn’t been helping. All the studies have shown that students in high school have a tough time fighting anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses. Their mental health is deteriorating, and something needs to be done about it. Schools can start supporting these students during their time of need and can have programs that reach out to students to check up on them and see if they need help. Another way to help students could be to get students more engaged by doing more exciting and engaging work in class and after (Club Activities). Also, schools can implement self-help strategies that can get students to get support from online resources like self-assessment tools and resource hubs. Some can be self-help apps, online counseling, and surveys or tests to see the state of their mental health.
Impact of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of Frontline Workers
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in China to gather data on public health workers at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC). The survey aims to investigate the working conditions and health status of frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article’s title, “Working conditions and health status of 6,317 frontline public health workers across five provinces in China during the COVID-19 epidemic: a cross-sectional study”, articulates the purpose clearly. From only the article’s title, readers can gather the authors discussing frontline workers’ working conditions and health status. There are 6,317 participants, and the means of research was a cross-sectional study.
The paper is organized correctly and has an abstract that includes the summaries of the background of the study, the methods used to obtain data, the results found, a conclusion, and a keywords section. Following the abstract, the paper follows a detailed description of the background of COVID-19’s effect on the Chinese people and the response from frontline workers during the pandemic. The articles mentioned, based on previous studies done on frontline workers during a SARS outbreak, “increased workload, fear of infection resulting from patient care, inadequate training and equipment, and lack of support were identified as risk factors for poor mental and physical health” (Li, J). The background addressed the importance of documenting the mental health status of frontline workers “to harness the experiences from this country [China], as this information can inform pandemic control efforts worldwide. The article discussed their aim, which was to identify frontline workers’ roles and job functions, the working conditions and challenges faced by frontline workers during the pandemic, perceptions related to COVID-19, and associated factors the mental and physical health of frontline and public health workers.
The aim of the study was followed by the methods sections that informed on the design of the research, participant recruitment, measurements, efforts and sacrifices, and statistical analysis, which were all subheadings in the methods sections. The study design informed that the cross-sectional study was conducted from 18 February to 1 March 2020, and data was obtained from 5 different provinces in China with varying severity of COVID-19 cases. Under participant recruitments, it states that the eligible participants were 18 years or older, worked at a CDC unit or public health institute, and participated in COVID-19 control. Site investigators distributed the survey links through WeChat and QQ, which are popular communication channels in China. All participants were informed of the background of the research and the aim. Under the efforts and sacrifices, subheading participants were asked about the number of days they worked all night, whether they had to work through the Chinese New Year’s holiday, and whether they had to make family sacrifices. The results section included the demographics of all 6,317 participants. There is a table included that gives the descriptive statistics of the demographics of public health workers during COVID-19. The article further goes on to explain the results displayed in the table. There is a subheading under the results section of the report that includes a “factor associated with depression, anxiety, and poor self-rated health.” This section is also accompanied by a table that interprets the association between mental health status and background variables. The results concluded that anxiety was higher in one of the provinces (Hubei) but not depression or poor self-rated health. For public health workers, employment trouble was perceived as an independent risk factor for mental health problems and poor self-assessed health.
A discussion was included at the end of the paper where the authors summarized their findings on how COVID-19 has affected the mental health of frontline workers. The authors expressed that although frontline workers received support from their families, they did not receive the same support from society. The research was particular in its discussion section, which reported how COIVD-19 had affected the mental health of frontline workers. There were 21.3% self-reports of depression and 19.0% reports of anxiety higher than hospital medical staff in China. The articles disclosed that funding came from the National Science and Technology Major Project of China and stated that the funder had no role in the study. At the end of the article, there was also a section that discussed the ethics of the research and the confirmation that the study was approved by the School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University. The authors declared that they had no competing interests as they were one of the first groups to conduct a study on the mental health of frontline workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another study done in Pakistan aimed to “evaluate mental health among health care workers throughout the epidemic and to sight see the possible influence factors.” The article is titled “Depression and Anxiety in Health Care Workers during COVID-19.” The title is specific to the type of mental illness the study is focused on. However, it did not specify where the research was done and which group of medical professionals will be focused on. The article has an abstract that indicated the location where the study was done and the aim. The research also includes a brief overview of the methodology, the results, the conclusion, and keywords.
In the introduction, the article includes citations from the World Health Organization that explains how the COVID-19 pandemic started, how China responded, how the disease is spread, how occupational stress leads to psychological issues like depression and anxiety, and more specific aim of the study. The purpose listed in the introduction is to find the “prevalence of depression among healthcare professionals working at teaching medical facility Sahiwal during the current pandemic.” Following the opening was the methods section. The study’s methodology was conducted by a cross-sectional survey created shared on Whatsapp with the medical professionals at Sahiwal. The methods section failed to mention how many participants were in the study; however, it was stated that all medical professionals at Sahiwal participated. The authors explained that Whatsapp was utilized for this study to reduce the spread of COVID-19 through contact. Another missing piece of the methodology was the questions that participants were asked to report on their mental health. The methods section did not elaborate on the methods used to conduct the study, and it was underdeveloped.
The results section succeeded the methods section where the data collected was reported on. The number of participants was acknowledged here when the authors mention 37 responses from Sahiwal medical professionals. A graph of the age groups was displayed, A cross-sectional survey conducted on the study’s methodology, and the demographics were noted. A small table was included that showed the data about the “frequency of distribution of anxiety and depression among participants.” The table reported that depression was present in 34.6% of participants, and anxiety was present in 42.2% of participants. This study was done on a tiny scale, hence why the statistics seem higher than the previously mentioned study. The discussion section of the survey addressed areas where stress and depression stemmed from healthcare workers’ risk of transmission to family and personal protection equipment.
The study ends with a conclusion that expressed support to protect the mental health of healthcare workers. The study’s limitation was the inability to make implications due to the nature of the cross-sectional study. There were no conflicts of interest or any funding to disclose.
The final research was done in Wuhan, China, and aimed to explore the factors that influence anxiety and depression in healthcare workers. The research’s title is “Current status of and factors influencing anxiety and depression in front‐line medical staff supporting Wuhan in containing the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic.” From the title, readers gain an insight into where the research was conducted, who the participants are, and what the researchers were looking for when conducting this study. The article’s abstract includes an aim that stated the purpose is to “shed light on the relationship between the sociodemographic characteristics of front‐line medical workers and their anxiety and depression.” This is to provide a reference for mental health education. The abstract also includes a brief overview of the method used to conduct the research, the results, and the conclusion.
The article’s introduction explained that the coronavirus is a pathogen, where it was first discovered and classified as a disease by the World Health Organization. Common effects of the coronavirus were included in the introduction, the number of lives claimed by the pandemic, and how mental health problems have affected healthcare workers battling the pandemic. Medical staff from Wuhan and Hubie medical centers were infected and confirmed intensified psychological stress. The introduction includes other studies done in different provinces of China as a reference to the results of this study. The end of the introduction restated the specific purpose of the study, which is to identify the factors that are influencing anxiety and depression in healthcare workers and providing a basis for preventative measures.
The methods section states that the study was done quantitatively by using a psychometric property questionnaire. The methodology is divided into nine parts which list specifically the methods used to conduct this research. The sample size of the study was 150 frontline workers working in Zhejiang Province. The research was conducted between February 1 and 20, 2020. A restatement of the specific purpose was mentioned in the methods section as “The study mainly discusses the correlation between sociodemographic characteristics and psychological stress.” The Hamilton Scale was used to measure anxiety and depression.
In the results of the study, 180 questionnaires were collected, but only 150 were valid. Table 1 included detailed information on participants about their job position, age, education, family life, fear of infection, etc. Table 2 reported on the status of anxiety in frontline workers. More than 39% of participants scored 14 or higher on the Hamilton Scale for anxiety. Table 3 reported that 44.7% of participants scored 17 and higher for depression. The previous studies mentioned in the introduction has a consistent result with this study. Although this one was done on a small scale, the researchers built up their credibility by including other research that produced the same results. The discussion section explained the results and included other studies that back up the results from this study. The discussion section explained why healthcare workers feel depression and anxiety during the pandemic, which is the absence of PPE, dealing with covid patients, the lack of family contact, and the extra hours worked. The study closed with a disclosure statement stating that there was no bias financially that would make their work biased.
Impact of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of Adolescents
During a time like a pandemic, adolescents may have been left behind more than any other group. With the onset of Covid-19, adolescents were usurped from their daily lives and wrought out of their schools and into their homes to hide from an invisible threat. This kind of situation creates many new problems that adolescents and most parents were not equipped to handle. This certainly caused unforeseen anxiety and depression and can lead to falling behind in school and typical development. However, to figure out the extent of the problems and the extent of the damage, one needs to delve into the information and research done on the topic. Subsequently, we will try to figure out how far the world’s children have been left behind and to what extent we can try to slow and reverse the damage.
To figure out the extent of adolescent problems during Covid-19, I looked at a study looking at the risk and protective factors that could be applicable for changes in their mental health. This study was conducted in New South Wales, Australia, and most of the participants were caucasian. Some 248 adolescents were surveyed before the pandemic and after two months since the pandemic started. The team directing the study predicted numerous things that the adolescents surveyed would feel. For instance, they believed that from T1 (initial test/survey) to T2 (second test/survey), the adolescents would experience higher symptoms of anxiety and depression and a decrease in overall life satisfaction. The researchers hypothesized this because they believed that due to Covid-19, adolescents would not be able to see and spend time with friends, coupled with the concerns regarding online learning to create a soup of anxiety and depression for the children. The researchers also believed that family conflict, frequent media exposure, and Covid-19 related distress would also be factors that would contribute to the rise of anxiety and depression.
The methodology used to try to do this study was various psychological questionnaires designed to measure anxiety, depression, life satisfaction, and Covid-19 related distress. The questionnaire for anxiety used was The Generalized Anxiety Subscale of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale. The questionnaire used for depression was The Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire – Child Version. The questionnaire used for life satisfaction was The Students Life Satisfaction Scale. Finally, the questionnaire used for Covid-19 related distress was an 18-item questionnaire developed with the current research to figure out how to distress Covid-19 the adolescents participating felt. The final questionnaires were conducted two months after the Australian government had put in place stay-at-home orders.
The results of the researcher’s investigation found very distressing consequences. On average, girls reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression both before Covid-19 and during Covid-19, while boys reported more familial conflict. Interestingly what has been found to correlate most strongly with mental health symptoms is feeling socially disconnected with friends and Covid-19 related distress. They also found that high on the list of concerns was the inability to participate in their normal extra-curricular activities or attend social events. Overall the adolescent’s measure developed significant increases in symptoms of depression and anxiety with a substantial decrease in life satisfaction. They also interestingly found that the factors associated with less stress were greater exposure to traditional media, adherence to government restrictions, and feeling socially connected with others.
One of the things the researchers tried to convey is that Covid-19 research at the time this study was conducted, and even today is still in its infancy. Truly accurate information is built on the back of previous information. So we will have to wait for a more significant amount of studies as this study does indeed have a relatively small sample size but reasonably acceptable and logical results. Give kids less time with friends and do the fun things they love doing, and they will be more symptomatic of depression and anxiety. However, the real worry should be how far they are falling behind in their lives because they have to deal with anxiety and depression when most adolescents certainly shouldn’t even be worried about these types of things.
I looked at another study tackling the same problem but in a much different way. This study conducted in America focused primarily on Single-Session Interventions for adolescent depression in the context of Covid-19. Single-session interventions offer a suitable path toward reducing youth depression. SSI’s have been found from a meta-analysis of 50 randomized trials to reduce youth mental health difficulties, including self-administered SSIs. Two types of SSIs have been found to reduce adolescent depression, and those two being Growth Mindset (GM-)SSI and Behavioral Activation (BA-)SSI. GM-SSI is an online program that teaches that personal traits are malleable. BA-SSI promotes value-based activity engagement to elicit pleasure and accomplishment. So to break it down, GM-SSI focuses on retraining habitual responses and getting out of mental pitfalls by understanding the personality’s malleability. BA-SSI refocuses on passions and interests to stimulate growth and life satisfaction. Both are oriented towards different types of depression, but the main idea of this study is that they are trying to test out something that may help the adolescents. This is different from the previous study that just tried to see and show that adolescents were hurting because this one sees if one of the things to solve and help adolescents hurts works and is effective at its job.
Participants were selected via social media such as Instagram through passive social media-based requirements based on established ethics guidelines. Initial recruitment took place from November 19th – December 6th, 2020, of which 2,400 youths were selected, a significantly larger sample size than the previous study. Then three-month follow-up surveys were sent out and completed by March 15th, 2021, and 2,542 participants completed the study and were randomized to an SSI. Participants were 88.09% female and 3.75% American Indian, 12.64% Asian, 10.48% Black, 1.59% Native Hawaiian, 19.21% Hispanic, and 66.56% White.
The researchers concluded from the data collected that adolescents randomized to the BA-SSI reported significant decreases in depression symptom severity relative to the control group adolescents. They also found that adolescents randomized to the GM-SSI also significantly decreased in depression symptom severity showing that SSI’s are adequate and effective measures fighting against adolescent depression. Participants also found reduced symptoms of helplessness and increased perceived agency.
The results are significant in the slowing down of the damage that has been done to adolescents during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Adolescents around the world experienced increased depression and anxiety due to not being able to see their friends and being unable to participate in extracurricular activities, so we must find ways to tackle their mental health practice, and SSI’s are showing a sign of hope.
Finally, I looked at a study based in China during the beginning of 2020. This study is slightly different than the previous two in that it is trying to find a correlation between depression and anxiety in Chinese adolescents. The researchers of this study hypothesize that adolescents with depression will have a higher correlation with anxiety or have more significant anxiety symptoms.
The researchers looking for a correlation between anxiety and depression and Covid-19 began their search with a cross-sectional and national online survey conducted from February 20th, 2020, to February 27th, 2020. This research was conducted using Wechat -based “QuestionnaireStar” program and found participants from all. This study hypothesizesChina ages 6-20. The researchers used a CES-D self-reporting questionnaire to conduct their investigation. The CES-D assesses the symptoms of depression and is composed of 20 items. Participants answer each item with how often they are experiencing what the item is describing. A self-reported generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire was also given to investigate the anxiety levels being experienced.
The results of this investigation were not very surprising given the previous two studies. A total of 9,744 adolescents were invited to participate in this study though only 9,544 met the criteria. Of the 9,544, 3,498 had clinical depression, and the proportion of those with anxiety was 45%. In turn, this shows that symptoms of anxiety were common with depression during Covid-19 primarily because of Covid-19. Their findings also indicated that female and higher grade students were vulnerable to anxiety because of academic stress as that is the time for college entrance exams and poor habits.
These three studies represent three different aspects of solving identical issues of adolescent mental health in the Covid-19 era. The first looked at trying to find the extent of the damage by understanding how severe adolescent depression and anxiety become before and after Covid-19. The second understood that there would be some damage towards adolescent mental health and instead tried researching a possible solution, being SSIs. The third study focused on finding a direct correlation between anxiety and depression in Chinese adolescents during Covid-19 to try to broaden the understanding of the issue. All three studies do their best to try to find out more information but the goals and uses between the three are drastically different. For the first study, I believe the sample size is far too small to come to genuinely adequate information. Still, the study is an excellent baseline to make inferences and hypotheses. The second study had far more people but a more lax investigation as they only checked up on the participants a single time. The third study was extensive because of its sample size but most likely failed to investigate thoroughly because it is an online study. Understanding the differences and the limitations of our research can better help us simply understand adolescent mental health in the present day.
Conclusion
After reviewing all these articles, surveys and journals, it is clearly evident that the covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the mental health of College Students, High School Students, Frontline Workers, and Adolescents and it keeps getting worse. From the articles and surveys reviewed, it is evident that more mental health resources have been created even though a lot of people do not make use of it. Since nothing is perfect, some of the articles and surveys did have limitations like small sample size or small range of demographics used but that does not completely discredit their results. All in all, the articles and survey did a good job in giving an empirical scoop of the extent of the impact of Covid-19 on College Students, High School Students, Frontline Workers, and Adolescents.
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