SynthesisEuropean child & adolescent psychiatry2023
A systematic review of the mental health changes of children and young people before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Synthesis in European child & adolescent psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06515704 (The Mental Health of Young Adults in Times of Polycrisis), which is not on this map. Cited by 228 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Mental Health of Young Adults in Times of Polycrisis
Who cites it
228 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Psychoeducational Challenges of Dyslexic Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.Dyslexia (Chichester, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in the mental health of children and young people with pre-existing mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review of longitudinal studies.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Cross-national research on adolescent mental health: a systematic review comparing research in low, middle and high-income countries.BMJ global health · 2025Pooled it
- Secular trends in mental health problems among young people in Norway: a review and meta-analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Global Research on Pandemics or Epidemics and Mental Health: A Natural Language Processing Study.Journal of epidemiology and global health · 2024Pooled it
- Relationship between loneliness and internet addiction: a meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Mobile applications in adolescent psychotherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- A systematic review of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of adolescents and young people with disabilities aged 15-29 years.BMC public health · 2023Pooled it
- Vitamin D supplementation in the first 2 years and autism spectrum traits at 6-8 years - a randomized clinical trial.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Trial
- Effectiveness of intensive community care services for adolescents with acute psychiatric emergencies: findings from a feasibility multi-centre, parallel-group, single-blinded RCT.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2026Trial
- Effect of Vitamin D3 Supplementation in the First 2 Years of Life on Psychiatric Symptoms at Ages 6 to 8 Years: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2023Trial
- Health-related quality of life, mental health and caregiver burden in children with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease.Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany) · 2026Article
- A narrative review of school-based preventive interventions on mental disorders and addictions.Discover mental health · 2026Review
- 10 Years of BRAVE Self-Help Service Delivery for Child and Adolescent Anxiety in Australia: Open Effectiveness-Implementation Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Predictive factors for psychotropic medication prescription in child and adolescent psychiatric emergency care: a machine learning approach using a health data warehouse.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Trends in Mental Health Diagnoses Among Children and Adolescents Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Large German State.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Pre-Pandemic Emotion Regulation and Supportive Relationships as Protective Factors Across Development: Prospective Prediction of Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Trajectories of child emotional and behavioural difficulties before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in a longitudinal UK cohort.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on psychotropic medication prescriptions for children and adolescents: a scoping review of quantitative longitudinal studies.Annals of general psychiatry · 2026Review
168 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
There is increasing knowledge that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on mental health of children and young people. However, the global evidence of mental health changes before compared to during the COVID-19 pandemic focusing on children and young people has not been systematically reviewed. This systematic review examined longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional studies comparing before and during COVID-19 pandemic data to determine whether the mental health of children and young people had changed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Web of Science, PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO databases were searched to identify peer-reviewed studies that had been published in English and focused on children and young people between 0 and 24 years of age. This identified 21 studies from 11 countries, covering more than 96,000 subjects from 3 to 24 years of age. Pre-pandemic and pandemic data were compared. Most studies reported longitudinal deterioration in the mental health of adolescents and young people, with increased depression, anxiety and psychological distress after the pandemic started. Other findings included deteriorated negative affect, mental well-being and increased loneliness. Comparing data for pandemic and pre-pandemic periods showed that the COVID-19 pandemic may negatively impact the mental health of children and young people. There is an urgent need for high-quality research to address the impact, risks and protective factors of the pandemic on their mental health, as this will provide a good foundation for dealing with future health emergencies and other crises.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.