"Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the mental health of children and families, i.e., due to measures like social distancing and remote schooling. While previous research has shown negative effects on mental health and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), most studies have focused on pre-post comparisons in the early pandemic stages. This systematic review aims to examine longitudinal studies to understand the long-term impacts of the pandemic on children and adolescents.
Results: A total of 5,099 results were obtained from literature searches, with 4,935 excluded during title/abstract screening. After reviewing 163 full-text articles, 24 publications were included in the review. Sample sizes ranged between n = 86 and n = 34,038... The findings from these studies mostly suggest that children and adolescents experienced heightened mental health problems, specifically internalizing symptoms like anxiety and depression. Further, there was a decline in their overall HRQoL over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic that did not necessarily subside when lockdowns ended...
Discussion
... The core result of this synthesis is that, despite some heterogeneity in the results, most of the evidence suggests an increase in young people’s mental health problems and poor quality of life during the pandemic, also beyond the initial phase of lockdowns...
Conclusion
The results of this systematic review point toward a sustained increase in mental health problems, particularly internalizing symptoms such as anxiety and depression, and a reduced quality of life in children and adolescents during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic...
From a public health point of view, these results point toward the importance of preventing mental health problems in children and adolescents. Promoting mental health and well-being, especially in times of crisis and especially in particularly vulnerable groups, is important in order to prevent symptoms of, for example, anxiety and depression from becoming manifest disorders that might persist into adulthood.
It is critical to continue monitoring children and adolescents to learn about their mental health and well-being after the pandemic...
As the results demonstrate long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents requires a stronger consideration in the future context of pandemic management, especially when considering the implementation of strict measures such as school closures and lockdowns."
© 2024 Orban, Li, Gilbert, Napp, Kaman, Topf, Boecker, Devine, Reiß, Wendel, Jung-Sievers, Ernst, Franze, Möhler, Breitinger, Bender and Ravens-Sieberer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.