Depressive symptoms in youth before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal investigation of patterns dependent on age, sex, and family history of mental illness.

BACKGROUND: Cross-sectional studies report high levels of depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in youth and females. However, longitudinal research comparing depressive symptoms before and during the pandemic is lacking. Little is known about how the pandemic affected individuals with familial history of mental illness. The present study examines the impact of the pandemic on youth depressive symptoms, including offspring of parents with major mood and psychotic disorders.

METHODS: Between March 2018 and February 2020, we measured depressive symptoms in 412 youth aged 5-25 years. We measured depressive symptoms again in 371 (90%) of these youth between April 2020 and May 2022. Two thirds (249) participants had a biological parent with a major mood or psychotic disorder. We tested the effect of the pandemic by comparing depression symptoms before and after March 2020. We examined age, sex, and family history as potential moderators.

RESULTS: We found an overall small increase in youth depressive symptoms ( b = 0.07, 95% CI -0.01 to 0.15, p = 0.062). This was driven by an increase in female youth without familial history of mental illness ( b = 0.35, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.56, p = 0.001). There was no change in depressive symptoms among offspring of parents with mental illness or males.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide reassurance about the wellbeing of children of parents with mental illness during a period of restricted access to resources outside the family. Rather than increasing symptoms in established risk groups, the pandemic led to a redistribution of depression burden towards segments of the youth population that were previously considered to be low-risk.