COVID-19 Pandemic Affects Young People's Mental Health and Future Orientation
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a significant challenge to young people's mental health and their ability to look forward to a positive future. Researchers have investigated the impact of the pandemic on adolescents' daily-life future orientation and anticipatory emotion regulation. Using the Experience Sampling Method, a study analyzed data from 189 Belgian adolescents aged 13-21 in 2020 and 2021, revealing differences in how they perceived future events and their emotional regulation during the pandemic.
Key Takeaways:
- The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected adolescents' mental health, particularly their future orientation and anticipatory emotion regulation.
- In the early stages of the pandemic, adolescents with higher psychopathology symptoms perceived the immediate future more negatively, whereas in the later stages, they perceived immediate future events as less positive.
- The study found a positive correlation between adolescents' future orientation and their ability to regulate anticipatory emotions in daily life during the pandemic.
- Higher psychopathology symptom levels were associated with looking forward to future events less and dreading them more in the early stages of the pandemic.
- The study suggests that adolescents with higher psychopathology symptoms were more likely to perceive the immediate future as negative during the first year of the pandemic.
- The results indicate that clinical interventions targeting future orientation could be beneficial in supporting young people's mental health during a crisis.
- The study involved 189 participants, including 121 females and 68 males, aged 13-21 in 2020 and 2021.
Statistics:
- 136 participants (121 females) were included in the 2020 data set.
- 53 participants (48 females) were included in the 2021 data set.
- 121 females and 68 males were part of the study.
- 2020 and 2021 were the time periods for the study.
Sources:
- osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/mh7au_v1/