Evaluating the Moderating Effect of Gender on Adolescents' Internalizing Symptoms Throughout the First Wave of COVID-19

In 2020, COVID-19 began to affect adolescents' mental health, particularly cisgender girls and transgender/gender diverse (TGD) adolescents, who previously experienced a greater risk for depression and anxiety disorders than their peers. The present study investigated the moderating effect of gender on internalizing symptoms among three community samples of adolescents (N = 5,487;Mage= 14.7, SD = 1.4) throughout the first wave of COVID-19 (pre-pandemic, mid-first wave, and post-first wave). Rates of internalizing symptoms were highest for TGD adolescents at all timepoints, followed by cisgender girls, who were significantly higher than cisgender boys. Gender moderated the effect of time on internalizing symptoms. Specifically, internalizing symptoms increased only for cisgender girls. These results suggest that during widescale disasters, intervention should focus on those with previous vulnerabilities to mental health symptoms such as cisgender girls and TGD adolescents.

Psychological well-being of ruminative adolescents during the transition to COVID-19 school closures: An EMA study.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents with moderate-to-severe levels of trait rumination are at heightened risk for psychopathology and may be particularly vulnerable to disruptions caused by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As most past research documenting the impact of COVID-19 on adolescent well-being has been cross-sectional, it is unclear exactly how ruminative adolescents responded to the onset of the pandemic as it unfolded. METHODS: We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to explore changes in rumination among adolescents during the initial transition to distance learning in the United States. A subsample of 22 ruminative youth (Mage = 13.58; SD = 0.96; 54.5% male; 86.4% White) from a larger study provided EMA data throughout January-April 2020 (M responses per participant = 105.09, SD = 65.59). Following school closures, we hypothesized that adolescents would report greater rumination (i.e., focusing on emotions and problems) and depressive symptom level would moderate this effect. RESULTS: Surprisingly, rumination decreased, and this effect was moderated by depressive symptom level for emotion-focused rumination, i.e., those with average and below-average depressive symptoms experienced decreases in rumination. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the first wave of stay-at-home orders and the transition to distance learning were not immediately distressing to vulnerable adolescents. However, more research is needed to determine whether the results from recent research are generalizable to other adolescents and to examine the long-term impact of the pandemic on adolescent well-being.