High depressive symptoms in adolescents increased by 6% due to pandemic

Adolescent girl in a talking therapy session - Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, depressive symptoms increased and life satisfaction decreased among secondary school children in England, particularly among girls, reports a new study led by UCL researchers. The researchers say the increase will have led to approximately 60,000 more secondary school students whose depressive symptoms would surpass a clinical threshold, adding further strain to young people's mental health services. The study, published in Royal Society Open Science , compared two groups of adolescents over two separate 1.5-year periods just before, and during, the pandemic. Corresponding author Dr Praveetha Patalay (UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies and MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL) said: "Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, there had been widespread concern about rising mental health difficulties among adolescents. "Here, we have found the pandemic contributed to a small additional rise in mental health difficulties among adolescents in England. As the pandemic is ongoing and many of its negative impacts may be long lasting, there is a need to prioritise young people and resource sufficient support for their mental health and wellbeing." The researchers, based at UCL, University of Manchester, University of Dundee, and the Evidence Based Practice Unit (at UCL and the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families), compared adolescents taking part in the Education for Wellbeing programme, which has been tracking a total of 11,450 secondary school pupils in two phases, providing what the authors call a natural experiment to compare two similar groups of children over different time periods.