Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, HSC 4H30A, HamiltonHamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.
Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Jun 6;23(1):1097. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-15813-6.
The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a social crisis that will have long-term health consequences for much of the global population, especially for adolescents. Adolescents are triply affected as they: 1) are experiencing its immediate, direct effects, 2) will carry forward health habits they develop now into adulthood, and 3) as future parents, will shape the early life health of the next generation. It is therefore imperative to assess how the pandemic is influencing adolescent wellbeing, identify sources of resilience, and outline strategies for attenuating its negative impacts.
We report the results of longitudinal analyses of qualitative data from 28 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 39 Canadian adolescents and of cross-sectional analyses of survey data from 482 Canadian adolescents gathered between September 2020 and August 2021. FGD participants and survey respondents reported on their: socio-demographic characteristics; mental health and wellbeing before and during the pandemic; pre- and during-pandemic health behaviours; experiences living through a crisis; current perceptions of their school, work, social, media, and governmental environments; and ideas about pandemic coping and mutual aid. We plotted themes emerging from FGDs along a pandemic timeline, noting socio-demographic variations. Following assessment for internal reliability and dimension reduction, quantitative health/wellbeing indicators were analyzed as functions of composite socio-demographic, health-behavioural, and health-environmental indicators.
Our mixed methods analyses indicate that adolescents faced considerable mental and physical health challenges due to the pandemic, and were generally in poorer health than expected in non-crisis times. Nevertheless, some participants showed significantly better outcomes than others, specifically those who: got more exercise; slept better; were food secure; had clearer routines; spent more time in nature, deep in-person social relationships, and leisure; and spent less time on social media.
Support for youth during times of crisis is essential to future population health because adolescence is a period in the life course which shapes the health behaviours, socio-economic capacities, and neurophysiology of these future parents/carers and leaders. Efforts to promote resilience in adolescents should leverage the factors identified above: helping them find structure and senses of purpose through strong social connections, well-supported work and leisure environments, and opportunities to engage with nature.
COVID-19 大流行构成了一场社会危机，将对全球大部分人口，尤其是青少年，产生长期的健康影响。青少年受到三重影响：1）他们正在经历这场大流行的直接影响，2）他们现在养成的健康习惯将延续到成年，3）作为未来的父母，他们将塑造下一代的早期生命健康。因此，迫切需要评估大流行如何影响青少年的幸福感，确定韧性的来源，并概述减轻其负面影响的策略。
我们报告了对 28 个焦点小组讨论（FGD）的定性数据进行纵向分析的结果，这些讨论涉及 39 名加拿大青少年，以及对 2020 年 9 月至 2021 年 8 月期间收集的 482 名加拿大青少年的调查数据进行的横断面分析。FGD 参与者和调查受访者报告了他们的：社会人口特征；大流行前和大流行期间的心理健康和幸福感；大流行前和大流行期间的健康行为；经历危机的经历；对他们的学校、工作、社会、媒体和政府环境的当前看法；以及关于大流行应对和互助的想法。我们沿着大流行时间表绘制了 FGD 中出现的主题，并注意到社会人口特征的变化。在评估内部可靠性和维度减少后，将健康/幸福感指标作为综合社会人口统计学、健康行为和健康环境指标的函数进行分析。
我们的混合方法分析表明，青少年由于大流行面临着相当大的身心健康挑战，而且他们的整体健康状况比非危机时期预期的要差。然而，一些参与者的表现明显好于其他人，特别是那些：锻炼更多；睡眠更好；有食物保障；有更清晰的生活规律；花更多时间在自然、深入的人际关系和休闲中；花在社交媒体上的时间更少。
在危机时期为年轻人提供支持对于未来的人口健康至关重要，因为青春期是一个塑造这些未来父母/照顾者和领导者的健康行为、社会经济能力和神经生理学的生命阶段。促进青少年韧性的努力应该利用上述因素：通过强大的社会联系、支持良好的工作和休闲环境以及参与自然的机会，帮助他们找到结构和目标感。
