Stress and coping strategies among youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-based cohort study

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a worldwide health- and societal crisis. Youth were exposed to enduring stressors. We examined types and load of stressors faced by youth, and their use of coping strategies. A population-based sample within Bergen municipality, Norway (N = 1031, 11–19 years) completed the Response to Stress Questionnaire 9 months into the pandemic. Social stressors were most frequent, with secondary control engagement being the most used coping strategy. Stress and coping strategies differed depending on sex, age, and socioeconomic status. Heightened stress were associated with primary and secondary control engagement, and disengagement. Thus, youth employed a range of coping strategies to an increasing degree with heightened levels of COVID-19 stress. The frequency of secondary control engagement aligns with the enduring uncontrollable nature of the outbreak. For future health crises, authorities should focus on social stressors experienced by youth, especially among girls, older youth, and youth with low socioeconomic status.

KEYWORDS:

• “COVID-19”
• stress
• coping strategies
• socioeconomic status
• Response to stress questionnaire

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

SL conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, and drafted the manuscript; JCS performed the statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript; GMS and BSMH helped interpret the data and helped to draft the manuscript; RB & EH conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript; SM & LTF Participated in the coordination of the study and acquisition of data, and critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to the sensitive character of health data, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All methods carried out in the study were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics, Western Norway approved the study (project number 131560). Written informed consent to participate in the study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian for participants aged 12–15 years. Following Norwegian legislation, youth aged 16 years and older provided written informed consent on their own behalf.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.