Female Adolescents’ Social Needs and Mental Health Under a Stay-at-Home Order During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent development: Exploring sleep and mental health

Abstract

Introduction: Forming new social connections is one of the main developmental goals of adolescents. Stay-at-home orders as implemented in many locations around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic greatly challenge this goal. The current study examined to what extent different social groups met female adolescents’ social needs prior to and during the stay-at-home order, as well as how changes in met social needs are related to self-reported physical distancing behavior and changes in depressive symptoms.

Study Population and Methods: 130 female adolescents (aged 12.6-17.1 years), part of an ongoing longitudinal study, completed the Adolescent Social Connection and Coping during COVID-19 questionnaire (ASC; https://osf.io/jakg5/) in April 2020. This survey included questions about how well friends, peers, extended family members, household members and romantic partners met the adolescent’s social needs in February 2020 and at the time of completing the survey, on a 6-point scale. They additionally answered the question “How well are you following the social/physical distancing or shelter-in-place restrictions?” on a 6-point scale and completed the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression scale for Children (CES-DC). Participants also filled out the CES-DC in earlier waves of the study, therefore longitudinal changes are examined from the latest pre-pandemic wave to April 2020 (M timespan=0.9 years).

Results: Friends, peers, extended family members and romantic partners all met social needs to a lesser degree during the lockdown compared to before, whereas there was no change in how well household members met adolescents’ social needs. Changes in how well social needs were met, were not related to adherence to physical distancing guidelines, although adolescents who felt their social needs were well met by friends and extended family pre- and mid-pandemic, reported stronger adherence to the physical distancing guidelines. Depressive symptoms increased longitudinally from prior to and during the pandemic (M = 15.6 and 22.1, respectively; 40% increase), controlling for age and time between assessments. Adolescents with greater decreases in how much social needs are met, had greater increases in depressive symptoms, with the strongest associations for needs met by friends (r = -.31, 9% explained variance; Figure 1).

Conclusions: To conclude, a stay-at-home order negatively affects mental health of female adolescents and this is partly explained by a decrease in the extent to which social needs are met. It is important to note that these might be temporary changes, which would need to be assessed in future research.

Authors

• Marjolein Eva Andrea Barendse, University of Oregon
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer H. Pfeifer, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author