Pandemic impacts on mental health of young people: the REACH study

Having collected information on mental health and associated risks from large cohorts of adolescents in the three years immediately before Covid-19, REACH was in a position to directly examine the impacts of the pandemic in a highly diverse sample of adolescents in inner London. Knowing how young people have been affected – and whether the impacts vary by social and ethnic group – is critical if we are to develop appropriate and effective responses that can support young people to thrive post-pandemic.– Dr Gemma Knowles, REACH Co-Investigator and Research Fellow, Centre for Society and Mental Health

Our findings tell us that it is young people who have been most directly affected by Covid-19 and restrictions to control its spread who have experienced the most distress. That is, it is those who live in households that are struggling financially, who live in cramped conditions, who have difficult relationships with family, who struggled with home schooling. This disproportionately means those in low-income households. The current cost of living crisis will only worsen this.– Professor Craig Morgan, REACH Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the Centre for Society and Mental Health

There is an urgent need – as many others are saying – for a series of policy measures to provide financial and other support to the most disadvantaged and those most impacted. This is reflected in the policy priorities we have identified with young people.– Dr Charlotte ​Gayer-Anderson, REACH Post-Doctoral Researcher, Centre for Society and Mental Health