Looking Back After the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Parents' View on Screen Media Use, Psychopathology, and Psychological Burden in a Clinical Sample of Children and Adolescents

Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine screen media use and the development and alteration of pre-existing mental health problems over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in a clinical sample of children and adolescents. Methods. A survey was conducted with over 650 parents of patients referred to child and adolescent psychiatry. Results. A worsening of the main mental health problem during the first year of the pandemic was reported more often (38%) by parents than an improvement (25%), a tendency even more pronounced for comorbid/secondary problems (worsening in 48%, improvement in 16% of cases). Girls in general, but especially between 14 and 18 years, more often showed a persistent deterioration of mental problems than boys. A negative impact of screen media use on their child's mental health was reported most frequently by parents of a child affected by depression (50%), with acute crisis (52%), eating disorders (45%), and conduct disorder/aggression (40%). Patients with multiple/comorbid mental health problems presented significantly higher mean screen media times (5.53 h/day) than patients with a single mental problem (3.97 h/day), and their parents more frequently reported increased concerns about their child's media use since the pandemic. Critical periods such as the lockdown or the "second wave" outbreak were characterized by higher media consumption in all patients, but with higher peaks in patients with multiple mental health problems. Conclusions. Particularly vulnerable patients, i.e., those with multiple mental problems and adolescent girls, have become more vulnerable in the course of the pandemic. From the perspective of most parents, screen media use has contributed to this development.