Age, gender and class: how the COVID-19 pandemic affected school-aged children in the WHO European Region / Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people’s health and well-being from the findings of the HBSC survey round 2021/2022

This report shows that adolescents across 22 countries and regions of the WHO European Region who took part in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey round 2021/2022 reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had had big impacts across multiple areas of their lives. The impacts were both negative and positive, with some adolescents reporting positive impacts in some areas and negative impacts in others. A large number reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had had neither positive nor negative impacts. Of adolescents reporting negative impacts, most related to their mental health. For positive, most related to relationships with their family. No consistent geographical patterns were seen. Gender and age differences were clearer and more consistent for positive rather than negative impacts. Boys reported positive impacts more often than girls in almost all countries and regions and younger adolescents were more likely to have experienced positive impacts than those who were older. Differences by how well-off adolescents' families were could be found in most countries and regions, affecting both positive and negative impacts. Adolescents whose families were not well-off were most likely to have experienced negative impacts, and those from well-off families were most likely to have reported positive impacts. Differences between genders, ages and families' economic status were not clear for negative impacts, but clear differences by gender (boys doing better), age group (younger adolescents doing better) and family economic status (adolescents from welloff families doing better) were seen for positive impacts.