Recovery trajectories of mental health symptoms among Chinese adolescents following the end of COVID-19

Jun Peng; Meihui He; Yongxing Guo; Jiangdong Diao; Kun Chen; Ziyi Deng; Lei Mo; Ruixiang Gao

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2024.1396911

Recovery trajectories of mental health symptoms among Chinese adolescents following the end of COVID-19

Front Public Health. 2024 Dec 4:12:1396911. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1396911. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Jun Peng^#¹, Meihui He^#¹, Yongxing Guo^#^{1

2

3}, Jiangdong Diao^{1

4}, Kun Chen¹, Ziyi Deng¹, Lei Mo¹, Ruixiang Gao¹

Affiliations

¹ Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, and School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
² DiggMind Psychometric Testing Technology Co., Guangzhou, China.
³ Department of Psychology, School of Education Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
⁴ Nanjing Gulou District Education Bureau, Nanjing, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on global mental health, particularly among adolescents. However, little is known about how mental health symptoms recover after the pandemic subsides. This study aims to examine the recovery trajectories of ten mental health problems and suicidal ideation among Chinese adolescents post-pandemic, with a focus on identifying factors that influence different recovery patterns.

Methods: A total of 2,534 adolescents participated in a three-wave survey, conducted in June 2022, November 2022, and March 2023, using the Mental Health Scale for Chinese Middle School Students. A novel index was developed to account for both the number and severity of mental health risk factors, allowing for the classification of psychological symptoms into three subgroups: no, moderate, and severe. Polynomial regression models were applied to determine the acceleration inflection point, and multivariate logistic regressions identified predictors of trajectory membership.

Results: Significant declines in psychological symptoms were observed. Seven trajectory patterns were identified: resistance (37.85%), recovery (22.61%), chronic-dysfunction (12.08%), aftermath-deterioration (10.81%), stress-responsiveness (8.21%), vulnerability (5.76%), and remitting (2.68%). Being female, senior high school students, and the oldest child in the family hindered mental health recovery, whereas parenting styles of companionship, empathetic support, promise fulfillment, and behavior intervention served as protective factors.

Conclusion: This study is one of the first to reveal the post-pandemic mental health recovery trajectories of Chinese adolescents, highlighting the importance of considering both the number and severity of cumulative mental health problems. The findings offer valuable insights into suicide prevention and the development of targeted interventions to support youth mental health recovery.

Keywords: COVID-19; cumulative mental health risk; recovery trajectory; severity; suicidal ideation.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
COVID-19* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / psychology
China / epidemiology
East Asian People
Female
Humans
Male
Mental Disorders / epidemiology
Mental Disorders / psychology
Mental Health / statistics & numerical data
Risk Factors
Students / psychology
Students / statistics & numerical data
Suicidal Ideation*
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by grants from the MOE Major Projects of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences in Universities (22JJD190008; 22JJD190004; 22JJD190007).