Yoo Nari, Jang Sou Hyun
Silver School of Social Work, New York University, 1 Washington Square N, New York, NY, United States.
Department of Sociology, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, South Korea.
Prev Med Rep. 2023 Jan 24;32:102119. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102119. eCollection 2023 Apr.
COVID-19 has worsened adolescents' mental and physical health. Several studies have reported that the effect may be greater in girls; however, relevant socio-ecological factors have not been examined. This study aimed to examine the factors associated with physical and mental health status among adolescents and the moderating role of gender on the relationship between physical and mental health status and perceived household financial decline. We analyzed the cross-sectional 2020 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBS) collected between August and November 2020 in South Korea. It included 54,809 adolescents (28,269 males and 26,540 females), on average aged 15.1. We conducted ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions to examine the factors associated with physical and mental health outcomes. Gender differences were observed in associated factors. Then, we tested the moderating effect of gender by including an interaction term between gender and perceived household financial decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Perceived household financial decline due to COVID-19 negatively affected both groups. Perceiving moderate and severe financial decline due to COVID-19 is negatively associated with self-rated health among female adolescents than male counterparts. Female adolescents were also more vulnerable to mental health outcomes (i.e., distress, anxiety, and loneliness) when they perceived severe or moderate household financial decline due to COVID-19 compared to their male peers. Our findings suggest that female adolescents are more vulnerable to household financial shocks due to COVID-19, especially in households that have experienced a severe decline. We suggest the need for gender-sensitive policy interventions for adolescent mental health.
新冠疫情恶化了青少年的身心健康。多项研究报告称，这种影响在女孩中可能更大；然而，相关的社会生态因素尚未得到研究。本研究旨在探讨青少年身心健康状况的相关因素，以及性别在身心健康状况与感知到的家庭经济衰退之间关系中的调节作用。我们分析了2020年8月至11月在韩国收集的基于网络的横断面韩国青少年风险行为调查（KYRBS）。该调查包括54,809名青少年（28,269名男性和26,540名女性），平均年龄为15.1岁。我们进行了普通最小二乘法（OLS）回归，以研究与身心健康结果相关的因素。在相关因素中观察到了性别差异。然后，由于新冠疫情，我们通过纳入性别与感知到的家庭经济衰退之间的交互项来检验性别的调节作用。因新冠疫情而感知到的家庭经济衰退对两组都有负面影响。与男性青少年相比，因新冠疫情而感知到中度和重度经济衰退的女性青少年，其自评健康状况与之呈负相关。与男性同龄人相比，当女性青少年因新冠疫情而感知到家庭经济严重或中度衰退时，她们也更容易出现心理健康问题（即痛苦、焦虑和孤独）。我们的研究结果表明，女性青少年更容易受到新冠疫情导致的家庭经济冲击，尤其是在经历了严重衰退的家庭中。我们建议需要针对青少年心理健康采取对性别敏感的政策干预措施。
