Search for: All records

In response to COVID-19, the CDC issued hygiene, protective equipment, and physical distancing guidelines to reduce virus transmission. Adherence was crucial for public health, particularly in the earliest stage of COVID-19, before effective treatments emerged. Still, there was wide variation in willingness and/or ability to follow the recommendations. One group that might be expected to flout rules and take risks under normal circumstances is adolescents. This developmental stage predisposes one to push boundaries and seek the company of peers. Adolescents with a history of lawbreaking might be even more inclined to disregard public health guidelines due to experiential and dispositional factors. We employed a longitudinal study launched prior to the pandemic to identify which pre-pandemic factors predict adolescents’ adherence to—or disregard for—public health guidelines during a crisis. The sample (N = 75, 30% justice-involved) came from predominantly minoritized communities in a southwestern U.S. city. Data were collected in three waves over one year. Analyses tested whether adherence varied by time period, local infection trajectories, justice involvement, pre-pandemic mental health, risk-taking, and rule orientation. Results revealed that adherence declined over time and was generally lower among justice-involved adolescents. In addition, justice-involved adolescents with higher depressive symptoms displayed lower adherence, whereas those reporting higher anxiety symptoms displayed higher adherence. Understanding these factors is crucial for developing strategies to promote adherence to public health guidelines among adolescents during public health emergencies. 

This study utilizes 6 weeks of electronic daily diary self-assessments across more than 1 year of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine associations between adolescents’ phone and video social contact with friends, family, and others over time. The sample includes justice-involved juveniles adjudicated to probation or incarceration and a comparison community sample of never-arrested adolescents. Findings reveal that community youth did not demonstrate positive emotional gains from social contact via phone or video during the pandemic and at times experienced more negative emotion on days with virtual social contact; however, such contact was especially beneficial for justice-involved youth, who had better self-conceptions and stronger feelings of social connection (although more loneliness as well) on days when they engaged in phone or video contact with friends or family. Thus, social contact via phone or video may serve to close the gap in emotional well-being between justice-involved and community adolescents. 

Background:The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in theUnited States resulted in safety guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC) intended to curb the spread of the virus. Adolescents are poten-tially at risk for disregarding these guidelines due to their reduced psychosocial matu-rity compared with adults. The current study examined the relationship betweenadolescents' psychosocial maturity, perceived importance of the CDC guidelines andadherence to the CDC guidelines within some of the highest risk groups for contract-ing COVID-19 in a county particularly impacted by the pandemic (i.e., Hispanic andlow-SES youth in El Paso, Texas).Methods:Participants completed a phone interview with a research assistant regard-ing their thoughts and behaviours in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic.Adolescents (N=68) were 15.38 years old on average (SD=1.05,range=13, 17),predominantly male (60.3%) and nearly exclusively Hispanic/Latino (94.1%).Results:Results indicated that although more psychosocially mature adolescentsreported greater adherence to the CDC guidelines than less psychosocially matureadolescents, the association between psychosocial maturity and adherence was fullymediated by how important adolescents felt it was to follow the guidelines. Specifi-cally, greater perceived importance was associated with greater adherence to theguidelines.Conclusions:The current study found that more psychosocially mature adolescentsadhere to CDC's safety guidelines better than less psychosocially mature adolescentsbecause they are more likely to view the guidelines as important. Information thatattempts to increase adolescent adherence to the guidelines should thereforeemphasize not only that following the guidelines is important, butwhyfollowing theguidelines is so important. Less psychosocially mature adolescents may benefit mostfrom interventions efforts and targeted messages regarding the importance offollowing the CDC's guidelines, as more psychosocially mature adolescents alreadyrecognize this importance. 

This study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first 6 months of the COVID‐19 pandemic in a sample of 1,339 adolescents (9–18 years old, 59% female) from three countries. We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in symptoms. Data from 12 longitudinal studies (10 U.S., 1 Netherlands, 1 Peru) were combined. Linear mixed effect models showed that depression, but not anxiety, symptoms increased significantly (median increase = 28%). The most negative mental health impacts were reported by multiracial adolescents and those under ‘lockdown’ restrictions. Policy makers need to consider these impacts by investing in ways to support adolescents’ mental health during the pandemic.