Eighteen Months of COVID-19 Pandemic Through the Lenses of Self or Others: A Meta-Analysis on Children and Adolescents’ Mental Health

Background The COVID-19 pandemic can have a serious impact on children and adolescents’ mental health. We focused on studies exploring its traumatic effects on young people in the first 18 months after that the pandemic was declared, distinguishing them also according to the type of informants (self-report and other-report instruments). Objective We applied a meta-analytic approach to examine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and psychological distress among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic, considering the moderating role of kind of disorder and/or symptom, type of instrument, and continent. Method We used PsycINFO, PubMed, and Scopus databases to identify articles on the COVID-19 pandemic, applying the following filters: participants until 20 years of age, peer-review, English as publication language. Inclusion required investigating the occurrence of disorders and/or symptoms during the first 18 months of the pandemic. The search identified 26 publications. Results The meta-analysis revealed that the pooled prevalence of psychological disorders and/or symptoms for children and adolescents, who were not affected by mental health disturbances before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, was .20, 95% CI [.16, .23]. Moreover, we found a moderating role of type of instrument: occurrence was higher for self-report compared to other-report instruments. Conclusions The study presented an analysis of the psychological consequences for children and adolescents of the exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic, soliciting further research to identify factors underlying resilience. Notwithstanding limitations such as the small number of eligible articles and the fact that we did not examine the role of further characteristics of the studies (such as participants’ age or design), this meta-analysis is a first step for future research documenting the impact of such an unexpected and devastating disaster like the COVID-19 pandemic

Development and evaluation of psychoeducational resources for adult carers to emotionally support young people impacted by wars: A community case study

Wars and armed conflicts have a devastating impact at the economic, social, and individual level. Millions of children and adolescents are forced to bear their disastrous consequences, also in terms of mental health. Their effects are even more complicated when intertwined with those of other disasters such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. To help them face such adverse events, lay adults can be supported by psychoeducational interventions involving simple tools to assist children and adolescents emotionally. Hence, we planned and implemented two public communication campaigns concerning wars to support adult carers such as parents, teachers, educators, psychologists, first responders, and others interested in young people’s wellbeing. We developed psychoeducational materials to help children and adolescents cope with negative emotions related to indirect and direct exposure to wars. This study had the objective to identify the content for two pamphlets, testing their comprehensibility, usability, and utility, and monitoring their dissemination. First, based on classifications of coping strategies and on a previous campaign about COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to include in the psychoeducational materials basic information on news about wars and common reactions to wars, respectively; on emotions that might be experienced; and on coping strategies for dealing with negative emotions. For the first pamphlet, we identified the strategies involving 141 adults. They completed an online survey with openended questions concerning ways to help children and adolescents cope with negative emotions associated with the Russia-Ukraine war. For the second pamphlet, we selected the contents based on Psychological First Aid manuals. Through content analyses, we chose 24 strategies. Second, data gathered with 108 adults who had consulted the psychoeducational materials supported their comprehensibility, usability, and utility. Third, we monitored the visibility of the campaigns after the release of the pamphlets, using Google Analytics™ data from the HEMOT® website through which we disseminated them. To conclude, our findings supported the comprehensibility, the usability, and the utility of the two pamphlets, to be disseminated as psychoeducational materials in the early phase of a disaster

Development and Validation of the Robust - Pandemic Coping Scale (R-PCS)

The psychological consequences of epidemics/pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, include an increase in psychopathological symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, and stress, and negative emotions, such as fear. However, relatively little attention has been paid to how people cope with the pandemic. Coping is a multi-component process, helping to diminish the traumatic impact of stressful events in a variety of ways. We studied how university students coped with the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, by developing the Robust - Pandemic Coping Scale (R-PCS), a new scale for measuring coping strategies related to epidemics/pandemics. The scale is based on a classification of coping strategies referred to the needs of competence, relatedness, and autonomy. To create a robust scale, such that the item values would be independent of the sample used for developing it, we employed Rasch modeling. We used a sample of 2,987 Italian university students who participated in an online survey including the R-PCS and the Power to Live with Disasters Questionnaire (PLDQ), during March 2020. First, we applied a dual approach combining exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, which supported the goodness of a 4-factor model (i.e., Despair, Adjustment, Proactivity, and Aversion) for the R-PCS, invariant across gender and age of respondents (younger or as old as 23 years, older than 23 years). We then transformed the raw scores of the R-PCS into interval logit scale scores applying the Rasch model. Second, our findings supported the discriminant validity and the criterion validity of the R-PCS, examining the correlations with the PLDQ. They also confirmed its predictive validity: the R-PCS scores were related to 2-month-later enjoyment and anger, indicating that Adjustment and Proactivity were adaptive while Despair and Aversion were maladaptive. Third, our study revealed gender and age differences: the scores were higher for Despair, Adjustment, and Proactivity for females; for Aversion for males; and for Proactivity for students older than 23 years. The study suffers from limitations related to social desirability, gender imbalance, and self-selection effects in the recruitment

METACOGNITIVE KNOWLEDGE AND CLASS LEVEL DIFFERENCES IN A MULTIMEDIA READING TASK: THE PANDHEMOT APP

Metacognitive knowledge (MK) includes self-knowledge, i.e., the awareness of one’s strengths/weaknesses pertaining to a learning activity. MK is crucial as it influences both students’ learning and strategies. In traditional reading tasks, MK usually increases with age; less is known concerning MK related to digital reading. We investigated whether learning through a multimedia reading task (MRT) affects MK, focusing on class level differences. A sample of 152 3rd (M = 8.35, SD = 0.28) and 7th graders (M = 12.40, SD = 0.30), divided in experimental/control groups, participated to a training using tablets. Through a MRT–the app PandHEMOT (Pandemics-Helmet for EMOTions)–we promoted their knowledge on pandemics and emotions. In pre and post-task phases we assessed MK measuring how many things students declared to know about the training contents. Running LMMs, we found an increase in MK after the MRT only in the experimental group. Moreover, both scores in the nine levels of the MRT and MK were higher for 7th vs. 3rd graders. However, MK was not related to MRT scores. Our findings indicate that participating to a psychoeducational training using digital reading is associated also to changes in students’ metacognition, as a relevant step for generalizing learning to other contexts

PANDHEMOT: AN EVIDENCE-BASED TRAINING TO INCREASE CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS’ KNOWLEDGE ON PANDEMICS AND EMOTIONS

Preventing the negative effects of pandemics on children and adolescents’ mental health is pivotal. This can be done promoting their emotional competence, i.e., the ability to express, understand, and regulate emotions (Denham, 1998). Therefore, we tested the PandHEMOT (Pandemics – Helmet for EMOTions) training, aimed at increasing children and adolescents’ knowledge on pandemics, emotions, and emotion regulation strategies. The sample involved 147 third (Mage = 8.35, SD = 0.28) and seventh-graders (Mage = 12.40, SD = 0.30), divided into an experimental and a control group. Students from the experimental group participated to a 3-unit training using the PandHEMOT app with tablets and headphones. All the students filled in questionnaires about their knowledge in pre and post-training phases. Through Generalized/Linear Mixed Models, we found significant Group x Phase interactions. The findings indicated that participating to the training increased knowledge on: pandemics, protective measures, facial expression, emotional lexicon, and emotion regulation strategies. Moreover, wellbeing did not decrease after the training. This study supported the efficacy of the PandHEMOT training in fostering children and adolescents’ resilience, following the evidence- based research standards

PandHEMOT®: An App for Children and Adolescents to Foster Pandemic-Related Emotional Competence

Pandemics are biological natural disasters that can have a traumatic impact on children and adolescents’ wellbeing. Recent metanalyses have well documented the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of psychopathological symptoms. To promote children and adolescents’ resilience and foster their emotional competence concerning the pandemic, we developed the psychoeducational app PandHEMOT® (Pandemics – Helmet for EMOTions), as part of a larger project. In this study, we tested the efficacy of a training using PandHEMOT® aiming at increasing children and adolescents’ knowledge and metacognitive awareness about pandemics, emotions, and emotion regulation strategies, also investigating class level differences. Moreover, we explored changes in participants’ wellbeing for ethical issues. We involved a sample of 65 third and 82 seventh-graders from Northern Italy, divided into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group participated to a three-unit training using PandHEMOT®; both groups filled in pretest and posttest questionnaires. Our findings indicated that participants belonging to the experimental group increased their knowledge and metacognitive awareness about the training contents, with adolescents performing better than children. In addition, participating to the training did not affect wellbeing. On the whole, we documented the efficacy of PandHEMOT® following the standards of evidence-based research. Notwithstanding some limitations, this study expanded knowledge about the possibility to use digital activities for promoting disaster-related learning with children and adolescents. It is also a valid example for developing other psychoeducational tools to foster emotional competence to cope with both possible future disasters and everyday life tasks