Generation Climate Crisis, COVID-19, and Russia-Ukraine-War: Global Crises and Mental Health in Adolescents

Overview

Journal Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Specialties Pediatrics
Psychiatry

Date 2023 Oct 9

PMID 37814081

Authors

Johanna Lass-Hennemann

M Roxanne Sopp

Norma Ruf

Monika Equit

Sarah K Schafer

Benedikt E Wirth

Tanja Michael

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Climate change, COVID-19, and the Russia-Ukraine War are some of the great challenges of our time. These global crises affect young people in a particularly vulnerable phase of their lives. The current study aimed to assess the impact of these crises on mental health (depression, anxiety, and health-related quality of life) in secondary school students in Germany. Furthermore, we assessed known predictors of mental health, such as socio-economic factors, individual life stressors, and resilience factors (self-efficacy, expressive flexibility) as covariates. In our sample of 3998 pupils, pandemic- and climate-related distress were linked to greater depression and anxiety and reduced health-related quality of life. War-related distress was associated with greater anxiety. Critically, these associations remained significant after controlling for all covariates, supporting the incremental predictive value of the crises measures. The study reveals a significant impact of the crises on the mental health of the current generation of adolescents. As such it suggests that mental health policies should include interventions that help youth to cope with the stress caused by the crises.

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