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A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry ( JAACAP ), published by Elsevier, found that girls and boys were affected differently by the pandemic. The study focused on depressive symptoms among 16-year-olds surveyed during the pandemic compared to those surveyed pre-pandemic. There was an increase in depressive symptoms in boys beyond the expected age-related trajectory, which emerged later in the first year of the pandemic and then early into the second year.

In contrast, the overall increase in depressive symptoms for girls was within the expected natural age-related increase. Studies report a decline in adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many of these studies lacked pre-pandemic comparison data or did not consider the natural age-related changes in mental health problems experienced during adolescence, making it challenging to accurately evaluate the impact of the pandemic on adolescent mental health.



Moreover, many studies focused on the initial months of the pandemic, therefore, little is known about the impact of the pandemic into the second year. This longitudinal study utilized data from 2,034 adolescents in the Tokyo Teen Cohort, a population-based cohort in Tokyo, which continuously collected data throughout the pandemic. The study compared self-reported depressive symptoms of 16-year-olds surveyed before (February 2019-February 2020) or during the pandemic (March 2020-September 2021).

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