A 🧵 on #COVID's impact on #adolescents, summarizing our preprint compiling longitudinal data from 1,339 adolescents in the U.S., Netherlands, and Peru, studied by 12 research groups. 1/ psyarxiv.com/hn7us/
Studies included participants aged 9-18 years old. Sample was 43% White, 16% Hispanic/Latinx, 9% Biracial/Multiracial, 8% Black, 2.5% Asian, 1.5% other, 20.5% missing; the international studies did not collect ethnic/racial identity information. 2/
We converted measures of depression and anxiety symptoms to proportion of maximum scores (POMS). We also measured disease burden (local case and death rates) and severity of government restrictions. 3/ ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
Linear mixed effects models showed that depressive symptoms significantly increased from before to during the pandemic. The median POMS of depression symptoms, adjusted for repeated measures, increased from 0.20 to 0.25 (a 28% increase). 4/
Age did not moderate the increased depressive symptoms, but did for anxiety symptoms. On the whole anxiety symptoms did not significantly increase; for younger adolescents, anxiety symptoms decreased during the pandemic. 5/
Strongest increases in both depression and anxiety symptoms were seen in biracial/multiracial adolescents. Hispanic/Latino adolescents showed decreases in anxiety symptoms and Black adolescents showed smaller increases in depression symptoms. 6/
Change in depression & anxiety symptoms was moderated by case rate (more symptom increases in areas with lower disease burden). But government restrictions & case rates were negatively correlated. Stricter government restrictions were associated with more symptom increases. 7/
Takeaways (oversimplified): Longitudinal data are invaluable. Anxiety is multifaceted, subtypes may have been affected differently by pandemic (eg, social vs general). Inequities in US disproportionately affect biracial/multiracial adolescents' response to COVID. 8/
Government restrictions seem to have more negative impact on adolescent mental health than actual case or death rates, perhaps due to mismatch between restrictions and disease burden. Leave-one-out analyses showed general stability in all findings except death rate analyses. 9/
Background story: We were 60% through the third wave of a longitudinal study of adolescent girls* when COVID hit. I knew we needed to have a record of the pandemic's impact on our participants. 11/
I assumed others were in the same position. Our lab built up an OSF repository of measures, IRB materials, etc. to facilitate adolescent researchers who wanted to ask similar questions. Also joined by @CD_Ladouceur in this effort. 12/
We saw an opportunity to ensure researchers were not exclusively focusing on the bad, but considering sources of #adolescent resilience, including social connection and prosocial behavior, by including such measures in the repo. @develadolescent 13/
The repo linked to a registry for researchers who planned to study adolescents' response to COVID. Nearly 60 groups signed up. I hoped we would be able to harmonize our data and ask bigger questions than any group alone. Now we're on our way! 14/
Contact us if you want to join the next round of inquiries! Lots to be asked including about pubertal/neural development, social support/connection, and more. Thanks to @Hopelab for support as we work to stand up this Consortium on Adolescent Pandemic Experiences (CAPE). /end

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More from @jennDSN

18 Feb
Check out this foundational work led by @hertinglab @Devel_Brain_Lab on pubertal development in the baseline #ABCDstudy data! Particularly innovative means of comparing self-reports and hormone levels. Buckle up, this 🧵 will also link you to a few bonus articles on puberty. 1/
Led by @cecily_cardew, a stellar international team of puberty scholars wrote a researcher's guide to using puberty baseline data in the #ABCDstudy, which you can find detailed in her wonderful tweetorial and also read the preprint (under review). 2/
Relatedly: in our TAG study cohort, led by @24michelle we have looked at the different ways of measuring puberty (for instance, self-report of physical development using words or line drawings vs. hormones in saliva or hair). 3/
Read 11 tweets
22 Feb 19
The stories are endless; the collective impact enormous. That time at 5 weeks postpartum I was asked in the @uopsych faculty meeting if I would abstain from the vote to expand our dept parental leave policy (add'l course release from teaching). nature.com/articles/d4158…
Obviously, the comment was meant as a joke, given that the faculty had just a) discussed my tenure & promotion case 15 minutes earlier and b) warmly welcomed me to my first post-baby meeting. But nothing about this was a joke to me.
Not a single other male faculty of reproductive capability was asked the same thing, specifically including another whose partner was due just a few weeks later. Why not them? The leave policy was gender neutral - any parent of a new child (biological/adopted) could use it.
Read 14 tweets

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