Mental Health of Russian Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions may be particularly harmful for adolescents; however, evidence about changes in adolescent mental health during the pandemic is inconsistent.

The aim was to examine changes in levels of Russian adolescent mental health and rates of substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants and methods: two cohorts of 11–18-year-old adolescents were recruited from Siberian cities in 2015–18 (n = 1774, 47% male) and in 2020–21 (n = 1747, 43% male). Participants completed identical sets of questionnaires: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, Body Image and Eating Distress scale and items on tobacco, alcohol and drug use. We examined the effect of cohort, gender and age using linear models.

Results: in the 2020–21 cohort, depression, anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms, total mental health problems and levels of substance use were higher than in the 2015–18 cohort. Increases in emotional symptoms and total mental health problems were similar in both genders, whereas increases in rates of smoking and alcohol use were significant only among girls.

Conclusions: the present findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic experience was likely to be stressful for adolescents. Therefore, more research on risk and protective factors of Russian adolescent mental health is needed. The findings also suggest that preventative interventions should be based on gender-specific patterns of adolescent substance use.

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