Adolescents’ Social Environment and Executive Functions Predict Long-term Mental Health and Feelings of Future Uncertainty Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted adolescents’ mental health (i.e. mood and life satisfaction). Some adolescents are at risk to be disproportionally hit by the pandemic due to vulnerabilities in their social environment. In the present longitudinal study, we explored adolescents’ mood trajectories throughout the pandemic, and whether vulnerabilities in the social environment (i.e. household and socioeconomic hardship) predicted adolescents’ mental health directly and indirectly through feelings of uncertainty about the future. We also investigated whether executive functions and age buffered these relationships. In total, 177 Dutch-speaking adolescents aged 10 – 18 years (Mage = 15.64, SDage = 1.72, 80% females at T1) participated in all three waves (T1= May 2020, T2 = November 2020, T3 = May 2021) of an online survey. Mood results demonstrated that feelings of vigor stabilized, after an initial dip between T1 and T2, but that feelings of tension and depression continued to increase throughout the pandemic. Higher exposure to household and socioeconomic hardship predicted negative mood and lower life satisfaction and was mediated by feelings of uncertainty about the future. Irrespective of the exposure to household and socioeconomic hardship, adolescents with better executive functions reported better mood in the aftermath of the pandemic, partially due to lower feelings of future uncertainty. However, no associations were observed with life satisfaction. These novel findings imply that adolescents’ mental health issues may outlast the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, executive functioning is a protective factor operating via feelings of future uncertainty, which makes them promising mechanistic targets for intervention.