Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Developmental Psychology
Volume 14 - 2023 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1095892
This article is part of the Research Topic Contemporary Perspectives in Adolescent Mental Health View all 11 articles

Predictive Relationship Between COVID-19 Anxiety and Psychological Distress in Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Provisionally accepted
`jennifer McMahon `jennifer McMahon 1,2*Elaine Gallagher Elaine Gallagher 3Katherine Dowling Katherine Dowling 1,2Alanna Donnellan Alanna Donnellan 1Eibhlin Walsh Eibhlin Walsh 1Sharon Houghton Sharon Houghton 4Megan Ryan Megan Ryan 5Cliodhna O'Connor Cliodhna O'Connor 6
  • 1 School, Child & Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Research Lab, Centre for Social Issues, Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
  • 2 Health Research Institute, Faculty of Education and Health Sciences, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
  • 3 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Health Sciences, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
  • 4 School, Child & Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Research Lab, Centre for Social Issues, Department of Psychology, University Hospital Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
  • 5 Centre for Social Issues, Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
  • 6 National Suicide Research Foundation, Cork, Ireland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    COVID-19 was a novel stressor that gave rise to pandemic related anxiety and increased the risk of mental health issues, particularly in youth. It is important to understand how such events contribute to psychological distress in young people to adequately intervene in the aftermath and to plan for future similar events. Using cross-sectional data from the CoSPACE Ireland study dataset this paper reports on the predictive relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and psychological distress for Irish adolescents (N=314, M=14.05, SD=2.7, 11-18 years), while controlling for other influencing factors across multiple levels of a bioecological systems approach. Covariates were age, gender, ethnicity, social economic status, Peer Support, School Support and Parent-Child Closeness. Findings indicate that COVID-19 anxiety was a significant predictor of adolescents' psychological distress. Specifically, Consequence Anxiety (worries about the indirect consequences of COVID-19) was found to be a predictor of adolescents' psychological distress rather than Disease Anxiety (worries about the COVID-19 virus itself). Individual factors (e.g., age, ethnicity, special educational needs) and microsystem factors (e.g., parent child closeness, peer support) were also found to impact on adolescents' levels of psychological distress. A significant moderation analysis revealed that greater parentchild closeness reduced the strength of the positive association between Consequence Anxiety and psychological distress. These findings suggest that strategies to alleviate adolescents' psychological distress during pandemics should focus on reducing pandemic-related anxiety, Deleted: Range 3 3 specifically Consequence Anxiety. A multisystemic approach is also recommended to reduce the negative mental health impacts of the pandemic on adolescents.

    Keywords: COVID-19, adolescents, psychological distress, pandemic anxiety, parental closeness

    Received: 11 Nov 2022; Accepted: 21 Nov 2023.

    Copyright: © 2023 McMahon, Gallagher, Dowling, Donnellan, Walsh, Houghton, Ryan and O'Connor. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: `jennifer McMahon, School, Child & Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Research Lab, Centre for Social Issues, Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.