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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1469792

Impact of COVID-19 vaccination on adolescent and youth students' mental health and bullying behaviors after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in China

Provisionally accepted
Hong-Jun Song Hong-Jun Song 1,2Cong Wang Cong Wang 1,3Yun-Fei Mu Yun-Fei Mu 1,3Jia Cai Jia Cai 1Zhongyue Deng Zhongyue Deng 1,3Yu Wang Yu Wang 1Ai-Ping Deng Ai-Ping Deng 1,2Ting Liu Ting Liu 1Bin Li Bin Li 1Yi Huang Yi Huang 1Jin Chen Jin Chen 4Yan Hu Yan Hu 5Bo Liu Bo Liu 6Wei Zhang Wei Zhang 1Lin Lu Lin Lu 7Mao-Sheng Ran Mao-Sheng Ran 1,3*
  • 1 Mental Health Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
  • 2 School of Nursing, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 3 Psychiatric Laboratory, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
  • 4 Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
  • 5 Sichuan Second Veterans Hospital, Sichuan, China
  • 6 Jingzhou Mental Health Center, jingzhou, hubei, China
  • 7 Peking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China

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

    Vaccination plays an important role in fighting against COVID-19. However, it is unclear about the association among vaccination, mental health, and bullying behaviors in China.This online survey was conducted to investigate the association among vaccination status, mental health problems and bullying behaviors in students from December 14, 2022 to February 28, 2023 in Sichuan, China. All participants (N=82873) were adolescents recruited via their teachers and professors. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), Sleep Severity Index Scale (ISI) and Cyberbullying behaviors were tested.The rates of depression, anxiety and PTSD in participants without vaccination were significantly higher than that in those with vaccination. Moreover, participants with more doses of vaccines had significantly lower rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD, school and cyber bullying (p<0.001). The rates of homosexual orientation, drinking, smoking were higher in participants with three or more doses of vaccines than those with less doses of vaccines (p<0.001).This study suggests that COVID-19 vaccination will not only protect students' physical health, but also improve mental health. It is crucial to explore the mechanism between vaccination and mental health problems and bullying behaviors in further studies.

    Keywords: COVID-19 vaccination, school bullying, Mental Health, Adolescent, China

    Received: 24 Jul 2024; Accepted: 27 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Song, Wang, Mu, Cai, Deng, Wang, Deng, Liu, Li, Huang, Chen, Hu, Liu, Zhang, Lu and Ran. 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: Mao-Sheng Ran, Mental Health Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    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.