Abstract

     Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has continued for more than two years, and the impact of this pandemic on mental health has become one of the most important research topics in psychiatry and psychology. The aim of the present study was to assess psychological distress in adolescents across five countries (Sweden, Morocco, Serbia, Vietnam, and the United States of America) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Using nonparametric analyses we examined the impact of COVID-19 on distress, measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory, in a sample of 4670 adolescents. Results: Our results showed that the association between the COVID-19 impact and psychological distress in adolescents’ lives was positive and moderate in Morocco and Serbia, positive and weak in Vietnam and the United States of America, and negative and weak in Sweden. We also found that female adolescents reported higher distress levels than male adolescents. Conclusions: COVID-19 impacted adolescents and their psychological distress differently depending on their residence.

Introduction

     The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has continued for more than two years, and the impact of this pandemic on mental health has become one of the most important research topics in psychiatry, psychology, and public health. Specifically, cumulative results have led most researchers to believe that the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions, such as social distancing and lockdown, have created unprecedented hazards for mental health globally [1,2,3,4,5,6]. For instance, in a systematic review of 19 studies with a total sample of 93,569 adults from eight countries, (i.e., China, Denmark, Iran, Italy, Nepal, Spain, Turkey, and the United States of America [USA]), Xiong et al. [6] reported varying rates of symptoms of anxiety (6.33% to 50.9%), depression (14.6% to 48.3%), post-traumatic stress disorder (7% to 53.8%), and stress (8.1% to 81.9%) and high rates of psychological distress (34.43% to 38%). Providing further evidence for the negative impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the general population, other researchers have found increased rates of symptoms associated with psychiatric conditions, such as depression, anxiety, panic, and many others [7,8,9,10,11,12].

     In addition to these recent studies on adult health, many researchers have investigated the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on children and adolescents, as they are more vulnerable to environmental stress and often have a more limited understanding of stressful situations and fewer strategies than adults to cope with sudden changes [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]. For instance, Meherali et al. [19] reviewed 18 studies with a total number of 20,150 children and adolescents from five countries, (i.e., Australia, Canada, China, Italy, and the USA) and concluded that COVID-19 restrictions had a great impact on the mental health of children and adolescents, causing anxiety, depression, disturbances in sleep and appetite, and impairment of social interactions. In addition, a review by Panda et al. [24] identified anxiety, depression, irritability, boredom, inattention, and fear of the COVID-19 pandemic as predominant psychological problems among children and adolescents.

Conclusions

     The present study examined the impact of COVID-19 on psychological distress among 4670 adolescents from five countries across four continents (Sweden, Morocco, Serbia, Vietnam, and the USA). We found that American and Moroccan adolescents were impacted the most by the COVID-19 pandemic and reported the highest levels of distress, whereas Vietnamese adolescents were the least affected by COVID-19 and had the lowest levels of distress. Furthermore, we also found that the COVID-19 impact correlated positively with psychological distress in all countries except Sweden. Finally, we found that female adolescents had higher COVID-19 impact scores and reported more psychological distress than male adolescents.