Corona did not have that much effect on mental health of young people
It could all be a bit less negative when it comes to the mental health of young people during the corona pandemic, concludes PhD candidate Naomi Koning. “Some young people fared worse, but others fared better.”
Next week it will be exactly five years since the first corona infection was detected in the Netherlands. Naomi Koning’s research began only a few weeks later, because she wondered what effect pandemics and lockdowns have on the mental health of young people? On 5 March, the researcher will receive her doctorate in Forensic Orthopedagogy from the University of Amsterdam.
For her doctoral research, Koning examined the mental health of young people in the Netherlands during the first year of the pandemic in various ways. “I followed a sample of 263 young people for a year with ten measurement moments. I also did a qualitative interview study at the time of the first easing of restrictions, in which I spoke to 35 young people, and I conducted an international meta-analysis,” she explains. “Mental health in my research was measured using the SCL27, a user-friendly psychological symptoms list that young people could fill in at home.”
Mixed picture
One of the results from the study immediately stands out: the mental health of young people was not as bad as all that. That seems to be a conclusion that certainly does not correspond with public opinion in recent years. “When I started this study, I also expected such a drastic event to have a greater effect, but I did not find that in my research,” says Koning. “Other international studies also paint a very mixed picture. Some young people fared worse, but others fared better. For example, young people with social anxiety no longer had to go to school or to that stupid birthday party. They could just stay in their own bubble and therefore had fewer complaints.”
Koning emphasises that there are indeed parts of the younger population that suffered under the lockdowns, but thinks that the overall picture is less negative than previously thought. “Some young people have really taken a beating during the pandemic, but there have also been many who have not experienced any negative effects. During the lockdown, it became a hot topic to talk about mental health. Young people admit it is easier to talk about it when they feel depressed, whereas before they were not so open about it. But although that has certainly been a positive effect, it does not directly mean that there has been an actual increase in the number of complaints. Just because someone feels ‘depressed’ for a day or a week, it does not necessarily mean that they actually have clinical depression.”
However, Koning does not want to go as far as to say that the needs of young people were taken into account too much during the lockdowns. “Some young people fell behind in their studies because they were unable to attend school for a long period of time. I wonder if that was necessary. The Outbreak Management Team consisted mainly of virologists, especially in that initial period, while some decisions might have been better considered in a multidisciplinary way, for example by also involving economists and psychologists.”
Buffers
The fact that, despite everything, many of the young people were not doing that badly mentally can, according to Koning, be explained mainly by two important buffers: resilience and the presence of a natural mentor. “High resilience consists of your own skills, a social network and a sense of community. The young people in my sample scored quite high on these factors, and that has a positive influence on their mental health,” says Koning. “The presence of a natural mentor, i.e. an adult, more experienced person in your immediate environment other than your parents, is also very important for emotional support, guidance and advice. Think of an uncle or aunt, a sports coach or a pastor. Such role models have a very clear positive effect.”
Naomi Koning will defend her doctoral thesis on 5 March at 16:00 in the Agenietenkapel on the thesis: “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome? The Mental Health and Compliance of Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The supervisors are Prof. G.J.J.M. Stams and Prof. A. Popma. The thesis defence can be followed live here.
Yet, according to Koning, perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from her research is that we should not lump young people together. “Many of the young people in my study adhered very strictly to the measures during the lockdown, while they were often dismissed as rule-breaking party-goers. Many of them felt a strong sense of responsibility towards the vulnerable people in society. So we really don’t need to keep putting those few negative outliers under a magnifying glass. It really wasn’t all that negative.”
