Espinoza Camila, Canessa Florencia, van der Veek Shelley, Alink Lenneke, van der Voort Anja
Institute of Education and Child Studies, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2024 Oct 23;18(1):136. doi: 10.1186/s13034-024-00808-x.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a well-evidenced impact on adolescents, who are especially sensitive to pandemic disruptions given the critical role of socialization in their development. In Chile too, evidence shows increases in mental health complaints among adolescents over the lockdown period. Our study aimed at exploring the experiences of Chilean adolescents regarding their mental health during the lockdown and school closure (March 2020-December 2021), and during the return to on-site education (2022) as informed by adolescents and school staff, with a focus on family, school, and social sources of risk and support for adolescents' wellbeing during these periods.
Using a qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 adolescents and 16 staff members from schools in an urban area of Chile.
Through thematic analysis, we generated five themes: [1] Adolescents in a mental health crisis, comprising a range of distressing experiences and mental health problems. This crisis was fueled by alterations in the functioning of adolescents' systems: [2] Broken support systems (peers and school); [3] The school agenda must go on, reflecting schools' strict compliance with the educational curriculum; and [4] Blurred boundaries between home and school life and within the family. Finally [5], Development will (try to) find its way describes how most participants experienced a bouncing back to wellbeing in the course of the school year upon return, and how some developmental milestones took place despite the abnormal conditions, providing evidence for resilience amid pandemic adversity.
The findings give insight into how the exchanges between the adolescent and the social systems they are embedded in were interfered. The results help us understand the challenges for mental health during and after the pandemic, and highlight adolescents' capacity to thrive as normality was restored. The results also underscore the importance of upholding stability across adolescents' systems and routines, in order to mitigate impacts on wellbeing amid abnormal circumstances. The findings are relevant for development-informed initiatives in policy design in the aftermath of the pandemic and in future crisis management responses.
有充分证据表明，新冠疫情对青少年产生了影响。鉴于社交在青少年发展中起着关键作用，他们对疫情干扰尤为敏感。在智利，有证据显示在封锁期间青少年心理健康问题的投诉有所增加。我们的研究旨在探讨智利青少年在封锁和学校关闭期间（2020年3月至2021年12月）以及恢复现场教学期间（2022年）有关其心理健康的经历，这些经历由青少年和学校工作人员提供，重点关注这些时期影响青少年福祉的家庭、学校和社会风险及支持来源。
我们采用定性研究方法，对智利一个城市地区学校的19名青少年和16名工作人员进行了半结构化访谈。
通过主题分析，我们得出了五个主题：[1]处于心理健康危机中的青少年，包括一系列令人痛苦的经历和心理健康问题。这场危机因青少年系统功能的改变而加剧：[2]破裂的支持系统（同伴和学校）；[3]学校日程必须继续，反映出学校严格遵守教育课程；[4]家庭与学校生活之间以及家庭内部界限模糊。最后，[5]发展将（试图）找到出路，描述了大多数参与者在返校后的学年中如何恢复到良好状态，以及尽管条件异常，一些发展里程碑是如何实现的，这为疫情逆境中的恢复力提供了证据。
研究结果让我们深入了解青少年与其所处社会系统之间的交流是如何受到干扰的。这些结果有助于我们理解疫情期间及之后心理健康所面临的挑战，并突出了青少年在恢复正常状态时茁壮成长的能力。结果还强调了在青少年的系统和日常活动中保持稳定性的重要性，以便在异常情况下减轻对福祉的影响。这些发现与疫情后政策设计中基于发展的倡议以及未来危机管理应对措施相关。
