Did Covid-19 impact mental health of Adolescent girls?

There is absolutely no doubt as how strongly the Covid-19 impacted the lives of people around the world. Now shockingly, a large study published in The Lancet Psychiatry said that the Coronavirus has had a significant, detrimental impact on adolescent mental health, especially in girls. The research was conducted by a team of Icelandic and North American behavioural and social scientists analysed over 59,000 Icelandic adolescents.

The study found that negative mental health outcomes were disproportionately reported by girls and older adolescents (13-18-year-olds), compared to same-age peers prior to the pandemic.

The study further revealed a decline in cigarette smoking, e-cigarette usage and alcohol intoxication among 15-18-year-old adolescents during the pandemic.

“The decrease observed in substance use during the pandemic may be an unintended benefit of the isolation that so many adolescents have endured during quarantine,” said John Allegrante, Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

The study represents a “landmark contribution to what we now know about just how psychologically devastating being socially isolated from peers and friends during the ongoing pandemic has been for young people”, added Thorhildur Halldorsdottir, a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Reykjavik University in Iceland.

“Isolation during the pandemic has been universal and it is global, and it is having a clinically important, negative impact on young people who have not been in school during the pandemic,” Allegrante observed.

“Whether an adolescent was an Icelander in Reykjavik who had been at home for most of the last year or an American in New York City, living under the same circumstances – being at home, engaged in remote learning and separated from friends — the consequences of not going to school not only set back their learning but also negatively affected their mental health. What we don’t know is by how much,” he said.