When the COVID-19 pandemic caused the United Kingdom to go into lockdown, restrictions such as social distancing resulted in adjustments to daily life. This impacted the mental health of...Show moreWhen the COVID-19 pandemic caused the United Kingdom to go into lockdown, restrictions such as social distancing resulted in adjustments to daily life. This impacted the mental health of adolescents. Especially adolescents with a history of childhood traumatic experiences, were found to be vulnerable to develop mental health problems. Mental health problems can worsen over time and affect the quality of life of adolescents. Therefore, it is important that anxiety is recognized and addressed as early as possible. Thus, it was expected that anxiety of adolescents with a history of childhood traumatic experiences would worsen throughout the pandemic. Adolescents with adverse childhood experiences were recruited for this study (N = 73, Mage = 22.4). Anxiety was measured during the first lockdown (April 2020), during the lifting of some restrictions (July 2020) and just before the second lockdown (October 2020). The Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS) was used for a total anxiety score and for the scores of three subtypes of anxiety: Social Anxiety, Physiological Anxiety and Worry. Data was analyzed with SPSS and four One-Way Repeated Measures ANOVAs were performed. The findings showed that Total Anxiety did not change significantly during the pandemic (F (2,130) = 0.257, p > .05). Neither did Physiological Anxiety (F (2, 130) = 0.040, p > .02), Worry (F (2,130) = 0.202, p > .02) and Social Anxiety (F (2, 130) = 0.103, p = > .02). The absence of significant results, can be due to post-traumatic growth of the adolescents. They might have developed coping mechanisms to deal with their childhood trauma and therefore are more able to deal with anxiety during the pandemic. Additionally, childhood trauma might lessen the impact of trauma during adolescence. Further research on long term effects of the pandemic on anxiety is needed.Show less
