Steven Ganot – August 12, 2021
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a global mental health crisis among children and adolescents, according to a University of Calgary study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics this week.
The study is a meta-analysis pooling the results of 29 separate studies from around the world that looked at the prevalence of clinically elevated anxiety and depression symptoms among 80,879 youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the study’s findings: Depression and anxiety symptoms have doubled in children and adolescents. About 25.2% of the children and youth measured in the studies had clinically elevated depression symptoms, and 20.5% had clinically elevated anxiety symptoms.
Depression and anxiety symptoms were more prevalent in studies collected later in the pandemic and in girls. Depression symptoms were higher in older children.
One of the 29 studies examined in the meta-analysis measured the prevalence and predictors of depression and anxiety among 384 high school seniors (12th graders) who were home quarantined and studied online in Jordan. The Jordanian study found that levels of depression and anxiety were high for both sexes but particularly for female students. The prevalence of anxiety among the girls was 46.9% and among the boys, 27.6%.
Unsurprisingly, the Jordanian study showed that having difficulties with online education was a predictor for both depression and anxiety during the pandemic.