Young people's mental and social distress in times of international crises: Evidence from helpline calls, 2019-2022

Young people's mental and social distress in times of international crises: Evidence from helpline calls, 2019-2022 | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Young people's mental and social distress in times of international crises: Evidence from helpline calls, 2019-2022 Marius Brülhart, Valentin Klotzbücher, Rafael Lalive This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2226566/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 22 Jul, 2023 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract We document mental and social distress of children, adolescents and adults in times of crisis, using data on 3 million helpline calls between January 2019 and May 2022. Detailed and high-frequency data from crisis helpline logs offer rich information on the evolution of distress among the most vulnerable. They represent a unique measure of "revealed distress", unaffected by researchers' study design and framing. Revealed distress of adults, measured by the volume of calls, rose significantly after both the outbreak of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In contrast, the overall revealed distress of children and adolescents has not increased during those crises. The nature of young people's concerns, however, changed more strongly than for adults, with conversations shifting from problems with school and peers to family and mental health problems. Call topics of young people shifted from problems with school and peers towards problems with family and mental health. We find the share of severe mental-health problems among young people to have increased with a delay, in the second and third year of the pandemic. Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Psychology and behaviour Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Socioeconomic scenarios Health sciences/Health care/Health policy Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files supplementaryinformation1.11.2022.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 22 Jul, 2023 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Major revision 01 Jun, 2023 Reviews received at journal 26 May, 2023 Reviewers agreed at journal 28 Apr, 2023 Reviews received at journal 15 Mar, 2023 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Mar, 2023 Reviewers invited by journal 09 Jan, 2023 Editor assigned by journal 16 Dec, 2022 Editor invited by journal 10 Nov, 2022 Submission checks completed at journal 10 Nov, 2022 First submitted to journal 01 Nov, 2022 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-2226566","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":151111019,"identity":"348977f4-3f50-45b7-90bd-61b3562b98b5","order_by":0,"name":"Marius Brülhart","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Lausanne","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Marius","middleName":"","lastName":"Brülhart","suffix":""},{"id":151111020,"identity":"3e1783e5-be08-48db-b5a4-0d623b811c04","order_by":1,"name":"Valentin Klotzbücher","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Freiburg","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Valentin","middleName":"","lastName":"Klotzbücher","suffix":""},{"id":151111021,"identity":"49b859e3-1dae-4e96-8108-1d45b668dc5f","order_by":2,"name":"Rafael Lalive","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA8ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBAC+wbGBwwMBQwJDOyMDQwMFQwMbOwMDMz4tBgcYDYAkkAtzCAtZ4BamInXAuQxtjGA1ePXcvww44cPQC38zcxtEh/nHc7jY2Zg/FyAzy89ycySM4BaJA4ztknO3Ha4GOgwZukZeLTYMeQfkOYBOewwY7Mx77bDiW3MQO/w4NFizP+Y+fcfoBZ5kJa/c4jQYjgjmU0a5H2Dw4yNjxkbiNBicOMxm2WPgUSCIVDLw55j6UAtjM3SeLWcT2a+8aPCpl7uePuDAz9qrBPntzcf/IxPCxRIIHNAcToKRsEoGAWjgCIAAOXjRV6XuPhqAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Lausanne","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rafael","middleName":"","lastName":"Lalive","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2022-11-01 14:29:24","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2226566/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2226566/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39064-y","type":"published","date":"2023-07-22T21:43:27+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":44734542,"identity":"f233bc81-3137-4d1e-b14b-173fba858afa","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2023-10-16 22:18:54","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1025970,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript4.11.2022.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2226566/v1_covered_fabd5a4f-9cd3-409e-a23f-b65383faa822.pdf"},{"id":29047058,"identity":"be0c2660-fcaa-49f8-ae01-1808b7a18522","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 19:19:38","extension":"pdf","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":2124605,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"supplementaryinformation1.11.2022.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2226566/v1/b9a03a9e3955bd4554d108a7.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Young people's mental and social distress in times of international crises: Evidence from helpline calls, 2019-2022","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2226566/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2226566/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"We document mental and social distress of children, adolescents and adults in times of crisis, using data on 3 million helpline calls between January 2019 and May 2022.\r\nDetailed and high-frequency data from crisis helpline logs offer rich information on the evolution of distress among the most vulnerable. They represent a unique measure of \"revealed distress\", unaffected by researchers' study design and framing.\r\nRevealed distress of adults, measured by the volume of calls, rose significantly after both the outbreak of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In contrast, the overall revealed distress of children and adolescents has not increased during those crises.\r\nThe nature of young people's concerns, however, changed more strongly than for adults, with conversations shifting from problems with school and peers to family and mental health problems. Call topics of young people shifted from problems with school and peers towards problems with family and mental health. We find the share of severe mental-health problems among young people to have increased with a delay, in the second and third year of the pandemic.","manuscriptTitle":"Young people's mental and social distress in times of international crises: Evidence from helpline calls, 2019-2022","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2022-11-14 19:19:33","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2226566/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Major revision","date":"2023-06-01T10:03:42+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2023-05-26T09:09:56+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"c8cd9304-8b8f-4d6d-98b0-145413783100","date":"2023-04-28T06:08:36+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2023-03-15T12:21:54+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"678fb19a-0294-4e2d-8359-2774ac289b76","date":"2023-03-03T10:58:45+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2023-01-09T05:00:22+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2022-12-16T19:03:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2022-11-10T16:36:23+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2022-11-10T16:34:15+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Scientific Reports","date":"2022-11-01T14:25:29+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"31845a4e-e65b-4ec5-8f9d-f8eacab769ef","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 14th, 2022","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[{"id":16877668,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Psychology and behaviour"},{"id":16877669,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Socioeconomic scenarios"},{"id":16877670,"name":"Health sciences/Health care/Health policy"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2023-10-16T22:00:35+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-2226566","link":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39064-y","journal":{"identity":"scientific-reports","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Scientific Reports"},"publishedOn":"2023-07-22 21:43:27","publishedOnDateReadable":"July 22nd, 2023"},"versionCreatedAt":"2022-11-14 19:19:33","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1038/s41598-023-39064-y","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39064-y","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-2226566","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-2226566","identity":"rs-2226566","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"rHA-KDH7Qsr4HCuvH75dn","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}