Related factors of depressive symptoms vary among adolescents and young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic

Depression represents a public health problem, especially in the adolescent and young adult populations. Studies have shown that during the COVID-19 outbreak, depressive symptoms were associated with economic instability, among other aspects related to isolation. The present study seeks to identify sociodemographic characteristics and situations associated with the presence of depressive symptoms in young people (N = 2058) in an Andean city at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Logistic regression analysis reveals that the factors predicting depressive symptoms vary between adolescents and young adults. The results show that perceived health status, satisfaction with virtuality, and being a woman are related to depressive symptoms. Likewise, it was found that, in young adults, but not in adolescents, the level of economic income and taking virtual classes were related to symptomatology. Receiving economic income turned out to have a differentiated effect according to age group since this factor increases the probability of developing depressive symptomatology in adolescents, while it reduces this probability in the older age group. Finally, the findings of this study are discussed by evidence from other studies in different countries.