Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Suicide was an urgent issue during the pandemic period in adolescents. However, few studies were focused on suicide during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown. An online survey was conducted among 5,175 Chinese adolescents from June 9th to 29th in 2020 to investigate the prevalence of suicidal ideation (SI) during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. A gender-specific stepwise logistic regression model was used. All analyses were performed with STATA 15.0

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on psychiatric symptoms of children and young people, but many psychiatric services have been disrupted. It is unclear how service use, self-harm and suicide has changed since the pandemic started. To gain timely information, this systematic review focused on studies based on administrative data that compared psychiatric service use, self-harm and suicide before and during the pandemic among children and young people. A systematic review of studies published in English from 1 January 2020 to 22 March 2021 was conducted, using the Web of Science, PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO databases. Increases or reductions in service use were calculated and compared using percentages. Of the 2,676 papers retrieved, 18 were eligible for the review and they provided data from 19 countries and regions.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) constitutes a major health concern among youth. However, less is known about the useful ways to prevent NSSI. As such, the NSSI- Peer Education Program (NSSI-PEP) aims to intervene on the vulnerability factors that predispose to NSSI by applying a peer education approach. The NSSI-PEP is grounded on the psychoanalytic tradition’s tenets, implementing modules targeting four crucial risk factors for NSSI: pubertal transformation, body image, self-esteem, and emotion regulation. Selected 8th grade students were trained to serve as peer educators and held a peer-education intervention for 6th and 7th grade students. Pre- and post-intervention assessments were conducted in order to evaluate the program’s effectiveness.

The outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in 2019 and the resulting quarantine may have increased the prevalence of mental health problems in adolescents. The aim of this study was to explore the association between the efects of home-based learning during the pandemic and the risks of depression, anxiety, and suicidality among junior and senior high school students. An online survey using Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) was conducted between 12 to 30 April 2020, on a total of 39,751 students. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the risk factors of associated depression, anxiety and suicidality during the pandemic.

Self-harm and deaths among adolescents and young adults are notably related to drug poisonings and suicide. With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are projections about a greater likelihood of such events arising among adolescents and young adults. To evaluate the risk of self-harm, overdose, and all-cause mortality among adolescents and young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. This population-based cohort study took place in Ontario, Canada, where a universal health care system captures all emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and deaths. The participants included all adolescents and young adults born in Ontario between 1990 and 2006, who were aged 14 to 24 years between March 1, 2018, and June 30, 2021.

This study identified the relationships between perceived household economic status and household economic downturn due to COVID-19 and adolescent depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Participants for this study were extracted from the 13th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey, conducted from August to November 2020. The participants comprised 54,948 middle and high school students selected by stratified random cluster sampling.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial psychological effect on young people. A quantitative assessment of the association between the pandemic and stress and suicidality in youths is needed. This study aims to investigate the association of the COVID-19 pandemic with self-reported stress and suicide-related behaviors in youths. This cross-sectional study used data from the the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBWS) conducted in 2019 and 2020 with youths aged 12 to 18 years. Statistical analysis was performed from January to February 2021.

The current study sought to ascertain the impact of inter-parent conflicts on teenage psychological distress, social and academic adjustment and examine the suicide ideation during the COVID-19. The results found to be alarming as 22% of the individuals displayed suicidal tendencies, with 9% having attempted suicide once, 4.6% having tried suicide twice, and 11% stating that they were likely to do so again. Therefore, the media and the government might host awareness programs and counseling initiatives to promote mental health and prevent suicidal behavior. Moreover, parents may be educated on community level, about the effect of inter-parental arguments on the mental health of their children.

Adolescence is often a period of turmoil. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased adolescents' difficulty due to mental health consequences that may affect their developmental milestones. This study constructed and empirically tested a theoretical model of three predictive factors (cyberbullying, abuse, and screen time) and stress as the mediating factor in adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Structural equation model (SEM) analysis was applied to investigate stress as a mediating factor in the relationship between adolescent NSSI and cyberbullying, abuse, and screen time. This cross-sectional study used a “crowdsourcing” sample collection method to recruit 464 adolescents aged 11–17 years who were administered a questionnaire comprising scales on cyberbullying, abuse, screen time, stress, and NSSI. All scales had construct reliabilities ranging from 0.759 to 0.958. SEM statistical analysis was performed using Lisrel version 8.8 (Scientific Software International, USA) for Windows (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, USA). The mean (± SD) age of the cohort was 14.61 ± 1.65 years, and consisted of 66.7% females. Secondary high school was the highest educational background (58%).

Recent studies have reported a deterioration in children’s mental health since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with an increase in anxiety and mood disorders. Rates of suicide ideation and suicide attempts among children were also higher when COVID-19–related stressors were heightened in 2020. This study aimed to better assess temporal trends in suicide attempts among children while adjusting for annual and seasonal fluctuations. It conducted a cross-sectional study of surveillance data collected over the past 10 years at the Robert Debré Hospital in Paris, France, which is one of the largest pediatric centers in Europe.

Worldwide, at least 13% of people between the ages of 10 and 19 live with a diagnosed mental-health disorder, according to the latest State of the World’s Children report, published this week by the United Nations children’s charity UNICEF. It’s the first time in the organization’s history that this flagship report has tackled the challenges in and opportunities for preventing and treating mental-health problems among young people. It reveals that adolescent mental health is highly complex, understudied — and underfunded. These findings are echoed in a parallel collection of review articles published this week in a number of Springer Nature journals. Anxiety and depression constitute more than 40% of mental-health disorders among young people (those aged 10–19). UNICEF also reports that, worldwide, suicide is the fourth most-common cause of death (after road injuries, tuberculosis and interpersonal violence) among adolescents (aged 15–19). In eastern Europe and central Asia, suicide is the leading cause of death for young people in that age group — and it’s the second-highest cause in western Europe and North America.

Population-level reports of suicide-related emergency department (ED) encounters among youth during the COVID-19 pandemic are lacking, along with youth characteristics and preexisting psychiatric service use. This study aims to characterize population-level and relative change in suicide-related ED encounters among youth during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with 2019. This cross-sectional study evaluated ED encounters in 2019 and 2020 at Kaiser Permanente Northern California—a large, integrated, community-based health system. Youth aged 5 to 17 years who presented to the ED with suicidal thoughts or behaviors were included.

There is major concern about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent suicidal ideation (SI) and peer relationships. This study investigated (1) rates of SI and (2) the extent to which peer connectedness and pre-existing neural activation to social reward predicted SI during the initial stay-at-home orders of the pandemic (April–May 2020) in a longitudinal sample of adolescent girls (N = 93; Mage = 15.06; 69% White non-Hispanic). Daily diary and fMRI methods were used to assess peer connectedness and neural activation to social reward, respectively. Nearly 40% of girls endorsed SI during the initial stay-at-home orders. Greater peer connectedness and neural responsivity to anticipated social reward were associated with a reduced odds of SI during the pandemic among girls.