Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Oct 27;10(11):1743.
doi: 10.3390/children10111743.

"Alone Again, Naturally": Mental Health Problems, Level of Personality Functioning, Social Withdrawal and Loneliness in Adolescents Admitted as Acute Inpatients in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Johannes Boettcher  1 , Dennis Radzuweit  1 , Marie Mey  1 , Philipp Rauch  1 , Andreas Kogler  1 , Claus Barkmann  1 , Kirstin Goth  2   3 , Sarah Hohmann  1 , Carola Bindt  1 , Ursula Voelker  1
Affiliations

"Alone Again, Naturally": Mental Health Problems, Level of Personality Functioning, Social Withdrawal and Loneliness in Adolescents Admitted as Acute Inpatients in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Johannes Boettcher et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

(1) Background: Adolescents admitted as acute inpatients belong to a particularly psychosocially vulnerable population. This study aimed to examine the clinical characteristics of an affected population in Germany using a theory-based approach. (2) Methods: We assessed the mental health problems, levels of personality functioning, and the severity of social withdrawal and loneliness in n = 62 adolescents admitted to an acute psychiatric inpatient unit. Cases were investigated cross-sectionally utilizing standardized psychometric questionnaires from the perspective of the patients and clinical experts. (3) Results: Mental health, level of impaired personality functioning, social withdrawal, and loneliness were all positively associated with the need for acute admission. Further analyses revealed that the level of personality functioning fully mediated the positive association between social withdrawal and mental health problems. In contrast, level of personality functioning only partially mediated the positive association between loneliness and mental health problems. (4) Conclusions: Our results suggest that more impairment in personality functioning might lead to poorer mental health when adolescents socially withdraw in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Loneliness, social withdrawal, and the level of personality functioning may help identifying essential characteristics of adolescents admitted to acute psychiatric inpatient units and guide the development of specific interventions.

Keywords: adolescence; level of personality functioning; loneliness; severe mental health problems; social withdrawal.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Predicted mediation models adapted from the from the Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness (Cacioppo and Cacioppo, 2018 [10]).
Figure 2
Figure 2
CONSORT flow diagram.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mediation of social withdrawal (A) and loneliness (B) as predictors in adolescents admitted to an acute psychiatric inpatient unit.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bowers L., Chaplin R., Quirk A., Lelliott P. A conceptual model of the aims and functions of acute inpatient psychiatry. J. Ment. Health. 2009;18:316–325. doi: 10.1080/09638230802053359. - DOI
    1. Kaman A., Erhart M., Devine J., Reiß F., Napp A.-K., Simon A.M., Hurrelmann K., Schlack R., Hölling H., Wieler L.H., et al. Two years of pandemic: The mental health and quality of life of children and adolescents—Findings of the COPSY longitudinal study. Dtsch. Ärzteblatt Int. 2023;120:269–270. doi: 10.3238/arztebl.m2023.0001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Octavius G.S., Silviani F.R., Lesmandjaja A., Angelina Juliansen A. Impact of COVID-19 on adolescents’ mental health: A systematic review. Middle East Curr. Psychiatry. 2020;27:72. doi: 10.1186/s43045-020-00075-4. - DOI
    1. Kauhanen L., Wan Mohd Yunus W.M.A., Lempinen L., Peltonen K., Gyllenberg D., Mishina K., Gilbert S., Bastola K., Brown J.S.L., Sourander A. A systematic review of the mental health changes of children and young people before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eur. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry. 2023;32:995–1013. doi: 10.1007/s00787-022-02060-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bowers L., Bartholomew S. Reasons for admission and their implications for the nature of acute inpatient psychiatric nursing. J. Psychiatr. Ment. Health Nurs. 2005;12:231–236. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2850.2004.00825.x. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources