Pandemic impact, mitigation strategies and peer support: a qualitative analysis of youth, parent, clinician and administrator perspectives

Abstract

Objectives: This study describes views on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on eating disorder symptoms in youth, as well as the impact on care, and the possibility of peer support as a mitigating strategy from the perspectives of youth and parents with lived experience with eating disorders, as well as clinicians and administrators.

Methods: A national purposive sample was recruited through websites and social media platforms. Those recruited were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire and to partake in an individual, virtual, semi-structured qualitative interview. Guided by a qualitative descriptive approach, interview data was transcribed and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: Fifteen parents (93% female; age 48.9 ± 6.9 years), 14 youth (93% female; age 15.3 ± 1.2 years), 16 clinicians (93.8% female; age 41.19 ± 15.7) and 12 administrators (83.3% female; age 47.75 ± 12.2 years) participated. Thirteen parents (87%) said they would attend a parent peer support group and all 15 (100%) said it should be offered routinely in community and hospital settings delivering eating disorder care. Benefits and risks were discussed by participants. Youth, clinicians and administrators agreed that parental peer support groups would be helpful but were not as convinced that youth peer support groups would be beneficial to youth with eating disorders.

Conclusions: Those with lived experience view parental peer support as beneficial and feel it should be offered routinely. Clinicians and administrators also voiced support for parental peer support with certain caveats regarding training and oversight.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40337-025-01347-2.

Keywords: Adolescents; Parents; Peer support.