How the COVID-19 pandemic shaped adolescents' future orientations: Insights from a global scoping review

Meaning-Focused Coping in University Students in Hong Kong During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

Many studies were conducted during and after the COVID-19 pandemic to examine its impact on young people's well-being. However, most studies are quantitative ones focusing on the negative impact of the pandemic on young people. In contrast, there are few studies examining the benefits of the pandemic using a qualitative methodology. Hence, we conducted focus group interviews to understand meaning-focused coping in 56 university students from late December 2022 to mid-January 2023 when Hong Kong was approaching the end of the pandemic. Thematic analysis using a deductive analytical approach based on the Revised Stress and Coping Model was applied during data analysis. The results showed that most students were able to generate positive experiences and emotions during the pandemic. Many of them reported improved mental well-being during the pandemic by infusing ordinary events with meaning. They engaged in adaptive goal processes by having a more positive attitude towards life. Students also found benefits in terms of enhanced personal strengths, better interpersonal relationships, and improved pandemic-related abilities. Furthermore, the current study compared the difference in the use of meaning-focused coping and perceived benefits by students with family or personal financial difficulties, students who coped well, and Mainland Chinese students studying in Hong Kong. This paper provides an alternative picture of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on university students.

Analysis of social media language reveals the psychological interaction of three successive upheavals

Using social media data, the present study documents how three successive upheavals: the COVID pandemic, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests of 2020, and the US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade interacted to impact the cognitive, emotional, and social styles of people in the US. Text analyses were conducted on 45,225,895 Reddit comments from 2,451,289 users and 889,402 news headlines from four news sources. Results revealed significant shifts in language related to self-focus (e.g., first-person singular pronouns), collective-focus (e.g., first-person plural pronouns), negative emotion (anxiety and anger words), and engagement (e.g., discussion of upheaval-related topics) after each event. Language analyses captured how social justice-related upheavals (BLM, Roe v. Wade) may have affected people in different ways emotionally than those that affected them personally (COVID). The onset of COVID was related to people becoming increasingly anxious and people turned inward to focus on their personal situations. However, BLM and the overturning of Roe v. Wade aroused anger and action, as people may have looked beyond themselves to address these issues. Analysis of upheaval-related discussions captured the public's sustained interest in BLM and COVID, whereas interest in Roe v. Wade declined relatively quickly. Shifts in discussions also showed how events interacted as people focused on only one national event at a time, with interest in other events dampening when a new event occurred. The findings underscore the dynamic nature of culturally shared events that are apparent in everyday online language use.

The Effect of Applied Dance Therapy on Life Satisfaction and Fear of Happiness Among Turkish Board High School Students

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES

In this study, we aimed to examine the effect of a 12-week dance (Zumba) performance on the fear of happiness and life satisfaction perceptions of high school students studying at boarding school.

METHODS

The sample group of this study consisted of high school students staying in the school dormitory in the 2022-2023 academic year. A total of 82 students between the ages of 15 and 17, selected by the convenience sampling method, participated in the study, and 41 of the students were selected as the experimental group and 41 as the control group. The Fear of Happiness Scale and Satisfaction with Life Scale were used in the study. The measurement tools were administered as a pre-test one week before the dance program started and as a post-test one week after the end of the program. Two-way ANOVA for mixed measures was applied to determine whether the fear of happiness and life satisfaction pre-test scores were statistically significantly different between the experimental and control groups and to compare the pre-test and post-test difference scores.

RESULTS

As a result of the research, it was concluded that the fear of happiness of the students who participated in the dance activity decreased, and their life satisfaction levels increased. These findings emphasize that dance can be an important resource that can increase the psychological well-being of young people.

CONCLUSIONS

As a result, it can be said that the 12-week dance activity positively affected students' fear of happiness and life satisfaction perceptions.

Worry and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Although worry is a normal cognitive process experienced by adolescents, for a significant number, it can reach intense and uncontrollable levels. If left untreated, these worries can lead to significant mental health problems that are maintained into adulthood. Adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) may be more prone to cognitive biases (that precede worry) and therefore highly vulnerable to worry. Limited research has examined worry in adolescents with NDDs; however, most studies have focused on measuring anxiety. The present research administered an instrument specifically developed to measure worry to 404 10 to 16-year-old mainstream school-aged adolescents, 204 (123 males, 81 females) of whom had a formally diagnosed NDD. A measure of depressive symptoms was also administered. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a satisfactory fitting model for worry. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed no interaction effects or main effect for worry according to NDD/non-NDD status. There were, however, main effects for sex, with females scoring significantly higher than males on worry about academic success and the future; worry about peer relationships; combined worry score; and depressive symptoms. The findings of this study offer psychologists and educators a brief validated measure of worry that is suited to mainstream school adolescents with or without NDDs. The wider implications of the findings in the context of education and intervention for students with NDDs are discussed.

Benefits of an online group dance program for adolescents' social bonding and wellbeing

INTRODUCTION

The Covid-19 pandemic and its ensuing effects on mental health made it clearer than ever that social bonds are critical for survival, flourishing, and mental wellbeing. Experimental laboratory-based research with children and adults shows that activities involving movement alignment and joint action, such as dance, can facilitate social bonds.

METHODS

This study examined whether an online group dance intervention positively affects social bonding and wellbeing using a randomized control design. Participants were 58 UK adolescents aged 11-16 years (N = 52 girls, 75% White, 7% Asian/Asian British, 18% Mixed-Other), randomly assigned to an online intervention or waitlist control group. Participants in the intervention group completed an online 5-week hip-hop dance program during the Covid-19 pandemic in January to February 2021. Measures of social bonding, wellbeing, and future orientation were taken at the beginning and end of the program.

RESULTS

Linear mixed model analyses examining group × timepoint interaction showed greater increase in social bonding (p < .0001), and wellbeing (p < .0001) in the intervention vs control group. Moreover, increases in bonding significantly predicted increases in wellbeing (p < .0001), and increases in bonding (p = .03) and wellbeing (p = .0002) significantly predicted increases in the adolescents' hope for the future.

CONCLUSIONS

These data, collected at a time of mass social isolation, show that a 5-week-long online dance activity can help adolescents forge stronger social bonds, and improve their wellbeing and future orientation. Our findings suggest that the wellbeing and future orientation benefits of group dance may stem from having stronger social connectedness, opening up avenues for future research and interventions.

Changes in employment psychology of Chinese university students during the two stages of COVID-19 control and their impacts on their employment intentions

Introduction

The employment psychology and issues being faced by university students have garnered significant attention after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Methods

Focusing on Chinese university students, this study compares the changes in their employment psychology between the initial and normalization stages of COVID-19 prevention and control in China and examines their employment choices during the normalization stage. This study also investigates how the transformed employment psychology of these students influences their employment intentions.

Results

(1) Chinese university students exhibit stronger feelings of employment confusion, anxiety, stability preference, uneasiness, and inferiority during the normalization stage compared with the initial stage, thus leading to a more negative employment psychology; (2) during the normalization stage, university students display a more pessimistic outlook on their employment situation and show their preference for direct employment, particularly in public institutions, state-owned enterprises, and government organizations. They also show a greater interest in working in first-tier cities than in their hometowns; (3) the employment psychology of these students in the post-pandemic period significantly influences their employment intentions, with employment stability preference psychology playing a crucial role; and (4) the employment stability preference psychology positively and significantly affects the employment intentions of junior college students. Conversely, this employment stability preference psychology has a negative effect on the employment intentions of academic master's and doctoral students. This paper also proposes some strategies to enhance the employment psychology of university students and improve their quality of employment at various levels, including government, school, enterprise, family, and individual.

Italian university students' future time perspective and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction

During the COVID-19 pandemic, young adults worldwide showed signs of distress as they were affected in their specific developmental tasks, including the construction of personal and professional futures.

Methods

The present study aimed to assess the situational future time perspective of Italian university students during the second pandemic wave, as measured by an ad hoc constructed instrument, to explore its interaction with some dispositional traits relevant in future construction, such as optimism, sense of life, aggression, and dispositional future time perspective, and to test their effect on psychological well-being. The total sample consisted of 389 subjects (18-35 years, M = 23.5, SD = 4.4).

Results and discussion

The results indicated that the pandemic experience, assessed by surveying specific indicators, negatively affected the future time perspective of students, particularly those dispositionally optimistic and convinced that life has meaning. However, awareness of the negative impact that the pandemic brought to the vision of the future seems to have dampened the levels of depression and stress, while anxiety was found to be related only to dispositional traits. The results also suggested the need for educational and economic policies that help young adults develop confidence in the future and in their ability to build it.

Exploring the effect of environmental sensitivity on emotional fluctuations among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: a three-wave longitudinal study

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the emotional well-being of adolescents worldwide. Some studies suggested that individuals with high Environmental Sensitivity may have been more likely to experience poor psychological adjustment during the pandemic than those with lower sensitivity. However, there is still limited research on how emotional responses varied across different stages of the pandemic and whether Environmental Sensitivity increased adolescents' vulnerability to the psychological impact of prolonged pandemic restrictions.

Methods

To address this gap, this study used a three-year longitudinal design (2020-2022) with a sample of 453 adolescents. They completed an online survey measuring their positive and negative emotions throughout the pandemic period, with Environmental Sensitivity considered a time-invariant covariate.

Results

The results revealed that all participants, regardless of their level of Environmental Sensitivity, experienced a decrease in positive emotionality between the first and second years. However, this trend reversed, showing an increase between the second and third years. Regarding negative emotions, highly sensitive adolescents experienced a significant linear increase over time. In contrast, low-and medium-sensitive adolescents exhibited a quadratic trend, with a notable increase in negative emotions between the first and second years, followed by a slight decrease between the second and third years.

Discussion

These findings provide further evidence of the negative impact of the pandemic on adolescents' emotional well-being. They also support the notion that Environmental Sensitivity is associated with individuals' ability to respond and adjust to adverse life events, with significant implications for future research and practice.

Longitudinal Association Between Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Depression Symptoms Among Chinese Adolescents During COVID-19: Evidence from Network Perspective

Although there are an increasing number of studies that have explored the mental health consequences of COVID-19 focusing on revealing risk factors, the longitudinal research examining the potential mechanism of the co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and depression symptoms among adolescents were scarce. The present study identified the important comorbidity symptoms and explored longitudinal relationship of PTSS and depression symptoms from the network perspective. A two-wave investigation (4 months interval; T1 and T2) was conducted with a sample of 1225 Chinese adolescents. Cross-sectional network and cross-lagged panel network (CLPN) analyses were adopted. Results showed that comorbidity symptoms consisted of both overlapping and non-overlapping symptoms, including "Future foreshortening" at T1 and T2 from PTSS, and "Hard to get started" at T1 and "Not sleep well" at T2 from depression symptoms. Strong longitudinal pathways appeared from all PTSS to depression symptoms, among which the pathway from "Difficulty concentrating" to "Hard to get started" was the strongest. These findings suggest that the possible comorbidity between PTSS and depression symptoms is caused by their independent and related structures, and their longitudinal association. Clinical intervention for these symptoms may alleviate adolescents' psychological problems in the aftermath of traumatic events.