Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Front Public Health. 2024 Apr 4;12:1357766. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1357766. eCollection 2024.
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has significantly impacted children and adolescents, leading to mental health challenges. Knowledge on their resources and difficulties is crucial and there is a need for valid instruments to assess their psychosocial condition especially in this exceptional situation. We assessed psychopathological symptoms using the SDQ during the pandemic, comparing to pre-pandemic data. Our study aims to understand adolescents' strengths and difficulties amidst COVID-19, evaluating the SDQ's utility in crisis settings.
Within the German school-based surveillance study ("B-Fast"), we assessed behavioral strengths and difficulties in 664 adolescents aged 11-17 years during the peak of the German COVID-19 pandemic using the validated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for both external and self-assessed data collection. Data were collected between November 2020 and April 2021. We compared self-assessed SDQ-scores to pre-pandemic data from a comparable sample and examined adolescent classification as "normal" or "borderline/abnormal" based on both external and self-assessed SDQ subscale scores using established cut-off values. Additionally, we conducted sex and rater-based score comparisons.
In our study, we observed a significant worsening of "Emotional Symptoms" compared to pre-pandemic levels, while "Conduct Problems" and "Prosocial Behavior" showed improvement. Variations in classification to "normal" and "abnormal" emerged when applying German versus British cut-off values. Females scored higher on "Emotional Symptoms" while males scored higher on "Hyperactivity Symptoms." Correlations between external and self-assessed SDQ ratings ranged from 0.43 ( < 0.001) for "Prosocial Behavior" among girls to 0.62 ( < 0.001) for "Peer Problems" among boys, indicating moderate to high consistency.
DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Our study contributes to understanding the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on German adolescents. Compared to other symptoms, we observed a particular worsening in "Emotional Symptoms" based on our data. Despite the moderate correlation between parental and self-reported evaluations, there appears to be a certain discrepancy in the perception of adolescent quality of life. Therefore, it seems prudent to assess both the external and self-reported evaluations and amalgamate the results from both parties to obtain a comprehensive problem profile of the individual. These findings underscore the importance of using country-specific cutoff values and reaffirm the utility of the SDQ as a valuable assessment tool, even within the unique circumstances posed by a pandemic.
SARS-CoV-2 大流行对儿童和青少年产生了重大影响，导致他们面临心理健康挑战。了解他们的资源和困难至关重要，因此需要有效的工具来评估他们的社会心理状况，尤其是在这种特殊情况下。我们使用 SDQ 在大流行期间评估了心理病理学症状，并与大流行前的数据进行了比较。我们的研究旨在了解青少年在 COVID-19 大流行期间的优势和困难，评估 SDQ 在危机环境中的效用。
在德国基于学校的监测研究（“B-Fast”）中，我们使用经过验证的优势和困难问卷（SDQ）评估了 664 名 11-17 岁青少年在德国 COVID-19 大流行高峰期的行为优势和困难，同时进行了外部和自我评估的数据收集。数据收集于 2020 年 11 月至 2021 年 4 月之间。我们将自我评估的 SDQ 评分与来自可比样本的大流行前数据进行了比较，并根据外部和自我评估的 SDQ 分量表评分使用既定的截断值检查了青少年的分类为“正常”或“边缘/异常”。此外，我们还进行了性别和评估者评分比较。
在我们的研究中，我们观察到与大流行前水平相比，“情绪症状”明显恶化，而“行为问题”和“亲社会行为”有所改善。当应用德国与英国的截断值时，出现了向“正常”和“异常”分类的变化。女性在“情绪症状”上的得分较高，而男性在“多动症状”上的得分较高。女孩的外部和自我评估的 SDQ 评分之间的相关性从“亲社会行为”的 0.43（ < 0.001）到男孩的“同伴问题”的 0.62（ < 0.001），表明存在中度到高度一致性。
讨论/结论：我们的研究有助于了解 COVID-19 大流行对德国青少年的社会心理影响。与其他症状相比，我们根据数据观察到“情绪症状”的特别恶化。尽管父母和自我报告评估之间存在中度相关性，但在青少年生活质量的感知方面似乎存在一定差异。因此，评估外部和自我报告的评估并合并双方的结果以获得个人的综合问题概况似乎是谨慎的。这些发现强调了使用特定国家的截断值的重要性，并再次确认了 SDQ 作为一种有价值的评估工具的效用，即使在大流行带来的独特情况下也是如此。
