Anxiety Outcomes through Adolescence in Relation to Social Support During the Covid-19 Pandemic

26 pagesAnxiety in adolescents is very prevalent in this day and age and was certainly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and increased social distancing. Social connectedness has been correlated with reduced anxiety. This longitudinal study investigates how social connectedness impacts anxiety responses and overall well-being for adolescents. More specifically, this study examines how social support and connectedness relate to anxiety outcomes for adolescents across the first months of social distancing. Survey data were collected between April and June of 2020 from 50 participants aged 10 to 18 years. Participants completed up to 10-time points of data, across 10 weeks. This study specifically analyzes data from two surveys administered to the participants each week: The Youth Anxiety Measure for DSM-5 (YAM; Muris et. al., 2017), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS; Zimet et al.,1988). The findings suggest that there is no significant correlation between total social support and total anxiety outcomes for this age group, however, exploratory analyses provided new results and further research is proposed to understand ways to help reduce anxiety in this age group