The Impact of Long COVID-19 Symptoms on Adolescent Mental Health

COVID-19 has severely impacted the world and has caused millions of deaths worldwide. The pandemic has the potential to severely impact the mental health of adolescents. Those who have tested positive may experience symptoms after their recovery, called Long COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to analyze Long COVID-19’s impact on adolescent mental health. The hypothesis is that Long COVID-19 symptoms have a detrimental impact on the mental health of adolescents. The null hypothesis is that there has been no impact on adolescent mental health. An electronic survey was sent with 13 stress-related questions and an informed consent. The responses were based on a Likert’s scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is the most positive impact and 1 is the most negative impact. Results were analyzed with standard statistical methods, and a p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. There was a total of 141 responses, and 59.3% of the respondents tested positive for COVID-19 and 40.7% did not. A t-test was run on the overall response between those who tested positive and had Long COVID-19 symptoms and with no symptoms, and p < 0.01, showing a significant difference between the responses of those who tested positive with Long COVID-19 symptoms and those who tested positive with no symptoms. More studies need to be conducted to accurately assess the impact of Long COVID-19 on adolescent mental health.