Growing Up in the Pandemic: Examining Associations Between Reproductive Development and Depressive Symptoms in Pre- and Pandemic Girls.

Abstract

In 2020, youth experienced transformative change, as schools shut down and adolescents' social and school lives moved fully online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid this upheaval, adolescents also experienced the normative changes of the pubertal transition, a well-known time of rapid physical and psychosocial change that coincides with increases in depressive symptoms for youth. The present analysis draws on a sample of N = 596 female youth recruited continuously from 2014 to 2023 to explore how an altered social landscape may change the experience of puberty. Multiple linear regression was utilized to examine cohort differences in the associations between pubertal status and timing with depressive symptoms, as well as associations between months since menarche and age at menarche with depressive symptoms. We found that previously established associations between pubertal status and timing with depressive symptoms were not replicated in the pandemic cohort; however, months since menarche was significantly associated with depressive symptoms in both pre- and pandemic cohorts. Our findings stress the importance of considering broader socio-historical context in studying adolescent development. They also highlight the value of considering the continuous reproductive development that occurs after menarche and extends the critical period for the development of internalizing symptoms in adolescence.