Yamaguchi Satoshi, DeVylder Jordan, Yamasaki Syudo, Ando Shuntaro, Miyashita Mitsuhiro, Hosozawa Mariko, Baba Kaori, Niimura Junko, Nakajima Naomi, Usami Satoshi, Kasai Kiyoto, Hiraiwa-Hasegawa Mariko, Nishida Atsushi
Unit for Mental Health Promotion, Research Center for Social Science & Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, 2-1-6 Kamikitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8506, Japan.
Silver School of Social Work, New York University, Washington Square North, New York, NY, 10003-6654, USA.
Psychol Med. 2024 Dec 20;54(16):1-8. doi: 10.1017/S0033291724003192.
Schools are central places for adolescent social lives, which is a major factor greatly affecting adolescent mental health; school climate (i.e. quality of the school social environments) can be a proximal social determinant for adolescent mental health. Supportive school environments may serve as a protective factor during crises like COVID-19, which disrupt social lives and worsen adolescent mental health. This is the first study examining whether the pandemic effects differed based on the levels of school climate on depressive symptoms (DS) and psychotic experiences (PEs) among adolescents.
School climate (score range: 0-28), DS (0-26), and PEs (0-5) were self-reported in a population-based cohort (Tokyo Teen Cohort; = 3171) at four timepoints (10y, 12y, 14y, and 16y) before and during COVID-19. COVID-19 occurred midway through the 16y survey, allowing us to examine its impact and interaction effect with school climate while accounting for within-person changes over time using mixed-effects models.
Significant interaction effects were found on DS (unstandardized coefficient [] = -0.166, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.225 to -0.107) and PEs ( = -0.020, 95% CI -0.028 to -0.012). The pandemic effects were not significant for adolescents with high school climate scores (around the 80th percentile or higher), although the pandemic significantly worsened these outcomes among the overall sample.
The negative mental health effects of the pandemic were significantly mitigated among adolescents experiencing a supportive school climate. A positive school climate can protect adolescent mental health during challenging social conditions, such as pandemics.
学校是青少年社交生活的中心场所，这是对青少年心理健康有重大影响的主要因素；学校氛围（即学校社会环境的质量）可能是青少年心理健康的直接社会决定因素。支持性的学校环境在诸如新冠疫情这样扰乱社交生活并使青少年心理健康恶化的危机期间可能起到保护作用。这是第一项研究，探讨疫情影响是否因学校氛围水平不同而在青少年抑郁症状（DS）和精神病体验（PEs）方面存在差异。
在新冠疫情之前和期间的四个时间点（10岁、12岁、14岁和16岁），对一个基于人群的队列（东京青少年队列；n = 3171）进行学校氛围（评分范围：0 - 28）、DS（0 - 26）和PEs（0 - 5）的自我报告。新冠疫情在16岁调查中途发生，这使我们能够在使用混合效应模型考虑个体随时间的变化时，研究其影响以及与学校氛围的交互作用。
在DS（非标准化系数[β] = -0.166，95%置信区间[CI] -0.225至 -0.107）和PEs（β = -0.020，95% CI -0.028至 -0.012）上发现了显著的交互作用。对于学校氛围得分高（约第80百分位数或更高）的青少年，疫情影响不显著，尽管在总体样本中疫情显著恶化了这些结果。
在经历支持性学校氛围的青少年中，疫情对心理健康的负面影响显著减轻。积极的学校氛围可以在诸如疫情这样具有挑战性的社会状况下保护青少年的心理健康。
