Almost one in four young people have mental health problems after the pandemic

A young couple in a park. EUROPA PRESS Before covid, the percentage of young people who said they frequently had this type of problem was 6.2% The appearance of negative thoughts is the psychological indicator that worsens the most The economic situation and access to work are another of the problems of young people aggravated after the pandemic24% of young Spaniards say they have mental health problems with some or a lot of frequency, which represents an increase of more than 18 percentage points with respect to the years (8.6% in 2021 and 6.2% in 2019), according to a study carried out by the Reina Sofía Center on Adolescence and Youth of FAD with the support of the Pfizer Foundation. The research, entitled ‘Youth in full development and pandemic crisis. How do they look to the future’ and presented this Wednesday at the FAD headquarters in Madrid, it has been carried out by consulting 1,200 young people between the ages of 15 and 29 during the months of February and March 2022 and yields results on the impact of the pandemic on Spanish youth. One of the most visible consequences of the Covid-19 crisis, according to the report, has been the worsening of mental health, which stands out as one of the aspects in which the pandemic has had the most negative impact, along with economic capacity and access to work. Thus, the document reveals that 66.8% of youth believe that the coronavirus crisis has had a negative impact on the mental health of young people. The appearance of negative thoughts is the psychological indicator that worsens the most: 53.3% of the young people surveyed say they have them, a percentage that increases to 58.3% in the case of women. In addition, young people between 20 and 24 years old are the ones who most declare an increase in the frequency of these thoughts. The authors of the study have warned that women occupy the worst position in all the psychological indicators, a “gender gap “that the authors of the study attribute to the greater care responsibilities that fall on them.” Care is a responsibility that often falls on women and a pandemic generates very high stress in women who have to care for the little ones and older people generated major problems”, explained the technical director of the FAD Youth Foundation, Eulalia Alemany.