Editorial Perspective: Challenges of research focusing on child and adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 era: what studies are needed?

Abstract

This editorial perspective focuses on the challenges of research on child and adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Common limitations of published/ongoing studies are (i) being conducted in one or few countries, (ii) the survey being available in one or few languages, (iii) targeting selected samples (e.g., clinical populations and health workers) rather than the general population, (iv) only recruiting/reporting on non-representative samples, (v) focusing often on a restricted set of mental health outcomes, missing the broader picture of mental and physical health, quality of life and functioning, (vi) failing to use a longitudinal design and (vii) collecting only parental ratings or self-rated questionnaires from children and adolescents, but not both. We discuss how the Collaborative Outcomes Study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times (COH-FIT) was designed to address some of these challenges, also highlighting its limitations.