Background

Several studies conducted since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have shown its harmful effects on young people’s mental health. In Québec and Canada, few studies have focussed on adolescents, and even fewer of these studies have examined this subject using a methodology that involved comparisons of data obtained before and during the pandemic, which is the purpose of this study.

Objective

The objective of this study is to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the anxiety of secondary 1 and 2 students in Québec, using data obtained before and during the pandemic.

Method

Participants were 2990 French Canadian students in secondary 1 (grade 7) and secondary 2 (grade 8) in Québec. Two independent samples completed the questionnaires, one sample before the pandemic (fall 2019) and one sample during the pandemic (fall 2020). Their answers were subjected to descriptive analysis and multivariate analysis of variance.

Results

Results show that the pandemic has had variable impacts on the student’s mental health, with some of them reporting negative effects on their lives, others reporting no effect, and some reporting positive effect. However, the students surveyed during the pandemic generally reported more symptoms of generalized anxiety, and higher levels of test anxiety, fear of judgment and perfectionism than the ones surveyed before the pandemic.

Conclusions

The discussion puts forward possible explanations for the results obtained, which contribute to a better understanding of young adolescents’ experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also discusses the importance of developing interventions for adolescents affected by this pandemic.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行对魁北克青少年焦虑的影响

背景

自 COVID-19 大流行开始以来进行的几项研究表明，它对年轻人的心理健康产生了有害影响。在魁北克和加拿大，很少有研究关注青少年，甚至更少的研究使用涉及大流行之前和期间获得的数据比较的方法来检查这个主题，这就是本研究的目的。

客观的

本研究的目的是使用大流行之前和期间获得的数据来确定 COVID-19 大流行对魁北克中一和中二学生焦虑的影响。

方法

参与者是魁北克省中学 1（7 年级）和中学 2（8 年级）的 2990 名法裔加拿大学生。两个独立样本完成了问卷调查，一个是大流行之前的样本（2019 年秋季），一个是大流行期间的样本（2020 年秋季）。他们的答案经过描述性分析和多变量方差分析。

结果

结果表明，大流行对学生的心理健康产生了不同的影响，其中一些人报告对他们的生活产生负面影响，另一些人报告没有影响，还有一些人报告有积极影响。然而，与大流行前接受调查的学生相比，在大流行期间接受调查的学生普遍报告了更多的广泛性焦虑症状，以及更高水平的考试焦虑、对判断的恐惧和完美主义。

结论

讨论对所获得的结果提出了可能的解释，这有助于更好地了解青少年在 COVID-19 大流行期间的经历。它还讨论了为受这一流行病影响的青少年制定干预措施的重要性。