Improvise, adapt, overcome? The mental health and compliance of youth during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic on March 11^th by the World Health Organization and lasted for more than three years. Particularly, at the start of the pandemic there were many uncertainties, and public health organizations were confronted with the question how to reduce the spread of the virus as fast and effective as possible. Subsequently, others started to discuss to possible effects of the measures taken to prevent the virus form spreading on the mental health of the population.
This dissertation aimed to gain more insight into the extent to which late adolescents and young adults complied with the imposed preventive measures, the possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health, and the factors that could have influenced their mental health and compliance. To meet these aims, four studies were conducted of which two mainly focused on compliance and two on mental health. The first study was an explorative cross-sectional study examining what factors were related to compliance with the COVID-19 measures. The second study was a qualitative interview study, which examined to what extent and why youth complied with the COVID-19 measures, and whether mental health and the availability of a natural mentor influenced their compliance. The third study was a meta-analysis on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of youth. The fourth and final study was a longitudinal study that examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of youth.