The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents’ (11–18 years) mental health and wellbeing in the UK: a scoping review

Wood, Margaret and Pennington, Andrew and Su, Feng and Laver-Fawcett, Alison and Gabriel, Lynne and Sinani, Charikleia (2025) The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents’ (11–18 years) mental health and wellbeing in the UK: a scoping review. Pastoral Care in Education. ISSN 0264-3944

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Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of a study into the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 11–18 years in the UK. The study also explored the key factors contributing to any negative ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people’s mental health and wellbeing, and their self-care and coping strategies to counter these impacts. The research adopted a scoping review approach using a staged framework – identifying the research question; identifying relevant studies; study selection; charting the data; and collating, analysing and reporting the results. Based on the findings of the study, five priorities for action were proposed to improve young people’s mental health and wellbeing in the post-pandemic era: (1) to identify ways in which young people can be brought to the table in the formulation of policy responses to crises impacting on their lives; (2) to recognise the importance of policy responses targeted at the specific needs of different groups; (3) to prioritise resources to enable connectedness to school and relationships to be nurtured and sustained; (4) to spotlight the need for greater clarity regarding the roles of teachers in supporting young people’s mental health within a system of support and (5) to vigorously support the value of an equal focus on academic achievement and wellbeing in schools, an inclusive, holistic curriculum which balances all learning domains and rethinks the pressures of current assessment and testing regimes and implications for young people’s wellbeing.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	© 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Keywords:	Mental health, wellbeing, adolescents, COVID-19 pandemic, agency
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Education
SWORD Depositor:	RISE Symplectic
Depositing User:	RISE Symplectic
Date Deposited:	28 Oct 2025 14:18
Last Modified:	28 Oct 2025 14:18
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4784

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