Full text

Turn on search term navigation

© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the mental health situation of children and adolescents during a period of less strict COVID-19-pandemic-related measures after the first pandemic wave. This cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2021 by carrying out an online survey among children and adolescents (aged 10–18 years) from Halle (Saale), Germany (n = 233). The questionnaire measured important aspects of mental health among young people, namely health-related quality of life (HRQoL, using the self-report version of the KIDSCREEN-10), mental health problems in general (using the SDQ), depressive symptoms (using the CES-DC), and psychosomatic complaints (using the HBSC symptom checklist). In addition, other important health issues such as sleep behavior and related difficulties, disordered eating, and any positive consequences of the pandemic were addressed. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. A total of 223 children participated in the survey. About 69.7% of the participating children and adolescents had a high HRQoL, while 10.5% displayed abnormal results on the SDQ. There were indications of emotional problems in 16.5% of the participants based on the SDQ subscales. Almost 44% of the participants were screened as positive for depressive symptoms on the CES-DC, with girls and older adolescents being more likely to be affected. This also applied for psychosomatic complaints. Here, irritability was experienced at least once a week or more frequently by 58.9% of the children and adolescents. Although we had a small sample size, this study showed a high prevalence of mental health problems regarding the SDQ and HRQoL. However, our study population showed a better mental health than comparable studies conducted earlier in the pandemic. Depressive symptoms were still substantially higher than those in pre-pandemic data. We hypothesize that this might reflect the fact that there were a few COVID-19-related restrictions at the time when our survey took place. Based on these findings, we assume that the mental health of children and adolescents differed between different phases in the pandemic.

Details

Title
Child and Adolescent Mental Health in a Period of Fewer COVID-19-Related Restrictions in an Urban Population in Germany
Author
Konopka, Anna 1 ; Führer, Amand 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Binder, Mascha 2 ; Diexer, Sophie 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Frese, Thomas 3 ; Gekle, Michael 4 ; Girndt, Matthias 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Gottschick, Cornelia 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hoell, Jessica 6 ; Klee, Bianca 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Kreilinger, Katharina 6 ; Moor, Irene 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Rosendahl, Jonas 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Sedding, Daniel 9 ; Jan-Henning Klusmann 10 ; Mikolajczyk, Rafael 11   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Raberger, Katja 6 

 Institute for Medical Epidemiology, Biometrics and Informatics (IMEBI), Interdisciplinary Center for Health Sciences, Medical School of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06097 Halle, Germany 
 Department of Internal Medicine IV, Oncology/Haematology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120 Halle, Germany 
 Institute of General Practice and Family Medicine, Interdisciplinary Center for Health Sciences, Medical Faculty of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06112 Halle, Germany 
 Julius-Bernstein-Institute of Physiology, Medical Faculty of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06112 Halle, Germany 
 Department of Internal Medicine II, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120 Halle, Germany 
 Department of Pediatrics I, University Hospital, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120 Halle, Germany 
 Institute for Medical Sociology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06112 Halle, Germany 
 Department of Internal Medicine I, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120 Halle, Germany 
 Department of Cardiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Mid-German Heart Center, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120 Halle, Germany 
10  Department of Pediatrics, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60596 Frankfurt, Germany 
11  Institute for Medical Epidemiology, Biometrics and Informatics (IMEBI), Interdisciplinary Center for Health Sciences, Medical School of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06097 Halle, Germany; German Center for Mental Health, Site Jena-Magdeburg-Halle, 07743 Jena, Germany 
First page
718
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
26735318
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3149724034
Copyright
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.