TY - GEN A1 - Cosma, Alina A1 - Martin, Gina A1 - Looze, Margreet E. de A1 - Walsh, Sophie D. A1 - Paakkari, Leena A1 - Bilz, Ludwig A1 - Gobina, Inese A1 - Page, Nicholas A1 - Hulbert, Sabina A1 - Inchley, Jo A1 - Ravens-Sieberer, Ulrike A1 - Gaspar, Tania A1 - Stevens, Gonneke W.J.M. T1 - Cross-national trends in adolescents psychological and somatic complaints before and after the onset of COVID-19 Pandemic T2 - Journal of Adolescent Health N2 - Purpose Building on research suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to an exacerbation of deteriorating trends in mental health among adolescents, this paper examined trends in adolescents' psychological and somatic complaints across 35 countries from 2010 to 2022, and tested trends in sociodemographic inequalities in these outcomes between 2018 and 2022. Methods Using data from 792,606 adolescents from 35 countries (51% girls; mean age = 13.5; standard deviation 1.6) across four Health Behaviour in School-aged Children surveys (2010, 2014, 2018, 2022), hierarchical multilevel models estimated cross-national trends in adolescent psychological and somatic complaints. We tested whether observed values in 2022 were in line with predicted values based on 2010–2018 linear trends. Finally, moderation effects of age, family affluence, and family structures on the outcomes were tested (2018–2022). Results Both girls and boys showed substantially higher levels of psychological complaints in 2022 compared with the predicted values. For somatic complaints, higher levels than predicted in 2022 were observed only in girls. Moderation analyses revealed an increase from 2018 to 2022 in age gaps and a narrowing in the socioeconomic gap for both outcomes. Also, there was a widening gap between adolescents living with 2 parents and those living in a single parent household in 2022 compared to 2018. Discussion Cross-national increases in adolescent psychological and somatic complaints were higher than expected in 2022, based on previous trends. Magnitudes of change varied across different sociodemographics groups, with implications for pre-existing mental health inequalities. KW - mental health KW - gender KW - cross-cultural KW - socio-economic inequalities KW - time trends KW - HBSC Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2024.09.028 SN - 1054-139X PB - Elsevier BV ER -