Teenagers are still suffering worse mental health than during pre-pandemic times

Researchers at Reykjavik University, in collaboration with an international research team, have highlighted the lingering effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on adolescent mental health.

The findings, published in Lancet Regional Health - Europe, highlight that while the pandemic may be over, teenagers whose daily routines were heavily disrupted at a crucial and challenging developmental period are still suffering worse mental health than during pre-pandemic times.

This study is one of the first large scale population-based studies into the long-term effects of COVID-19, comparing pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic outcomes using survey data from over 62,000 Icelandic adolescents. The most recent data collection took place in November 2023.

Þórhildur Halldórsdóttir, Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology at Reykjavik University, says the findings suggest that adolescents are still experiencing elevated distress compared to the pre-pandemic period.

“Depressive symptoms increased in the pandemic but show signs of post-pandemic recovery. However, anxiety and hostility increased and remains high,” says Þórhildur.

This new study, which additionally integrates post-pandemic data, also takes a bioecological modelling approach to identify common risk and protective factors specific to certain environments (e.g. home or school) that could be targeted for support in post-pandemic recovery or future stressful scenarios. Such factors include parental support, trauma, and screen time, that have been shown to have changed dramatically during the pandemic in other population-based studies. 

Other key findings from the study include:

• The worst year for Icelandic teens mental health was 2022 – this indicates that the return to normal life was worse than the period of restrictions; this coincided with the peak of infections in Iceland. 
• Low parental support, high social media use and receiving poor grades were consistent predictors of poor mental health across all models – notably unlike other studies, this study did not find dramatic increases in screen time (beyond gaming with friends) due to the pandemic.  
• Risky behaviour increased during the pandemic – increases in accidents, arguments with parents and an increase in sexual abuse perpetrated by peers (the latter only reported only by girls) indicates an increase of risk-taking behaviours.