Is the psychological impact of exposure to COVID-19 stronger in adolescents with pre-pandemic maltreatment experiences? A survey of rural Chinese adolescents.
Child Abuse Negl
; 110(Pt 2): 104667, 2020 12.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-722495
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Since the COVID-19 outbreak at the end of 2019, it has evolved into a global pandemic with tremendous mental health impact besides the threats to people's physical health.OBJECTIVE:
The aims were to examine whether exposure to COVID-19 predicts elevated levels of anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms and whether pre-pandemic maltreatment experiences exacerbate this impact on mental health in adolescents. PARTICIPANTS ANDSETTING:
The survey was conducted online from February 8 st to February 27th, 2020, and the questionnaires were distributed and retrieved through a web-based platform. This study includes a total of 6196 subjects, aged range from 11 to 18 years old.METHODS:
Several multivariable linear regressions were used to analyse the data.RESULTS:
The largest variance in PTSS and anxiety problems was explained by ACEs, with more pre-pandemic maltreatment experiences predicting more PTSS (effect size beta = 0.16â¼0.27), and more anxiety (effect size beta = 0.32â¼0.47). Experienced or subjective fear of exposure to COVID-19 predicted statistically significant variance in PTSS and anxiety, and standardized betas ranged from 0.04 to 0.09. Participants who had adverse childhood experiences and had experienced exposure to COVID-19 showed elevated PTSS.CONCLUSIONS:
After pre-pandemic maltreatment experiences the impact of exposure to COVID-19 on mental health may be stronger. Scars from the past seem to be vulnerabilities during societal upheaval. We therefore suggest that when exposed to COVID-19 rural adolescents should get prioritized professional family support and mental health counseling in particular when they have experienced family abuse and neglect in childhood, even though such support is more difficult to organize in rural areas.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Anxiety
/
Child Abuse
/
Psychology, Adolescent
/
Adverse Childhood Experiences
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Child Abuse Negl
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.chiabu.2020.104667
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