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- COVID-19 Special Article Changes in mental health of Korean adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a special report using the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey
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Bomi Park1
, Jihee Kim2
, Jieun Yang2
, Sunhye Choi2
, Kyungwon Oh2
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Epidemiol Health 2023;45e2023019-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2023019
Published online: February 14, 2023
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2Division of Health and Nutrition Survey and Analysis, Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, Cheongju, Korea
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Corresponding author:
Bomi Park,
Email: bpark@cau.ac.kr
Kyungwon Oh,
Email: kwoh27@korea.kr
Bomi Park and Jihee Kim contributed equally to this study as co-first authors.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
We aimed to study the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on adolescents’ mental health in Korea.
METHODS
We used data from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2018-2021 with 227,139 students aged 12-18 years. We estimated the differences in depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and stress perception before (2018-2019) and during (2020-2021) the pandemic, as well as before (2019), the first year (2020) of, and the second year (2021) of the pandemic. We also examined whether COVID-19 is statistically associated with mental health.
RESULTS
In both male and female adolescents, the prevalence of depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and stress perception was higher in the “not living with family,” “low household economic status,” and “self-rated unhealthy status” subgroups. The prevalence of depressive symptoms and stress perception was higher in middle school students. Adolescents were less likely to experience depressive symptoms (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 0.89), suicidal ideation (aOR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.76 to 0.83), and stress perception (aOR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.74 to 0.79) in 2020 than in 2019. However, there were more depressive symptoms (aOR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.09), suicidal ideation (aOR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.10 to 1.21), and stress perception (aOR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.16 to 1.23) in 2021 than in 2020.
CONCLUSIONS
The COVID-19 pandemic had positive impacts on mental health of adolescents in its early stages but has had negative impacts as the pandemic continues. Attention should be paid to adolescents who are particularly vulnerable to the mental health effects of the pandemic.
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