Change in psychological distress and associated factors among Hong Kong young adults in post-COVID-19 era: a latent transition analysis.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought negative impacts on young adults' mental health. The present study aimed to examine the transition of psychological distress classes in young adults after the pandemic and the associated factors.

Methods: A total of 577 young adults (mean age = 25.9 years, SD = 4.4) in Hong Kong participated in a longitudinal online survey on mental health in 2022 and 2023. The participants completed the 10-item Chinese Health Questionnaire and self-constructed items on COVID-19 distress, financial distress, and social distress. Latent class analysis was used to classify the participants into latent classes of psychological distress. Latent transition analysis was conducted with measurement invariance to examine the transition amongst the latent classes from 2022 to 2023 and the associations with changes in the stressors.

Results: The data supported three latent classes of psychological distress. A third of the participants belonged to the High-distress class with elevated symptoms and its prevalence decreased from 34.3% to 27.8% over one year. 40.9% and 10.0% of the Moderate-distress and High-distress classes transitioned to the Low-distress class after the pandemic, respectively. Financial distress (OR = 3.14, 95% CI = 1.17-8.41) and social distress (OR = 3.25, 95% CI = 1.70-6.21) was significantly linked to higher odds of transitioning from the Low-distress to High-distress class. Increased social distress was associated with decreased odds (OR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.39-0.84) of improvement from the High-distress to Moderate-distress class.

Conclusion: The findings suggest an overall reduction in psychological distress among young adults after the pandemic. Increases in financial and social distresses after COVID-19 showed significant effects on worsening psychological distress.