Impact of Family Income on Mental health changes of Korean Adolescents in COVID 19

Abstract

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) had an adverse impact on socioeconomics and poor mental health in adolescents. However, mental health changes due to family economic impacts are limited in the nursing-based literature. This study aimed to investigate the association between economic impact and mental health changes in Korean adolescents. Data were from the Korean Youth Panel Survey 2021; a total of 54,848 adolescents were included. The study variables were sociodemographic. mental health and behavior. Mental health problems included depression, anxiety, sadness, suicidal ideation, and hopelessness. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to find the association between economic impact and mental health problems and was reported by odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Overall, nearly half of the adolescents (44.7%) had mental health changes, and most of them were girls (51.7%). The COVID-19-related economic impact was more likely to have a mental health change (OR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.38–3.25) in the middle-income group (OR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.19–1.44) and statistically significant (p<0.05) compared to the no economic impact. The results confirm an association between sudden economic impact due to COVID-19 and mental health problems in Korean adolescents. To preserve adolescents' health, professionals must focus on population-based mental health promotion in clinical and community strategies that should be included in child health interventions and school health programs for emerging infectious diseases in the near future.