Assignment 2: Critical Evaluation of a Research Sample

1. Introduction - Assignment 2: Critical Evaluation of a Research Sample

The objective of this assignment is to critically analyse the following research work: How is the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacting Mental Health of Children and Adolescents? by Miranda et al. (2020). In this critical evaluation the following aspects will be discussed: Pre-study questions, methodology and analysis, participants’ selection procedure, an outline of ethical aspects, researcher’s reflexivity and positionality, and the major findings of the study. In the article, the authors focus on the psychological consequences of COVID-19 in children and adolescents; the examined indicators include anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms.

This paper will also assess the appraisal of the research by stressing its advantages and disadvantages in terms of the scientific approach and the value of revealing the mental health issues of the young generation during the COVID-19 pandemic (Kauhanen et al., 2023). Moreover, it will raise questions of ethical and positional considerations of the research and present a reasoned evaluation of results. The critical appraisal will look to evaluate the scholarly relevance and application of the study concerning mental health interventions.

2. Research Questions and Issues

In response to several key questions about the prevalence and aetiology of mental health consequences of COVID-19 in children and adolescents, Miranda et al. (2020) turn to their research article. The central research questions are: As a result, the present study aims to identify COVID-19-related effects on children and adolescent’s mental health. Which elements should be considered crucial to sustain their psychological responsiveness throughout such a crisis?

The study focuses on particular outcomes of a psychological nature, including higher levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and prevalence of PTSS during and after the pandemic period (Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2022). Also, it discusses the relationship between developmental stages, gender, socioeconomic status and the existence or absence of protective factors such as social support and routine activities. The research also further assesses the implications of communities, especially schools, families, and even the online environment, in decreasing mental health costs.

These questions are very useful given that children and adolescents are an at-risk population, which is prone to the psychosocial effects of disasters. The problems include disrupted routines, social isolation, and restricted exposure to mental health care services accentuating their mental health issues during the pandemic (De Figueiredo et al., 2021). In addressing these issues, the research offers important information on how protective and risk factors come into play to determine the mental health status of an individual.

It is thus important to establish how the pandemic impacted young populations to develop accurate targeted mental well-being and policies. It is useful for prioritizing resource allocation and preventing future psychological harm that the study focused on the determinants of specific ages and genders that are vulnerable and impacts of socioeconomic factors (O’Sullivan et al., 2021). Consequently, the findings advance the theory and indicate more urgency to ensure that children and adolescents’ mental health can be well protected in similar crises in the future.

3. Research Methods

Miranda et al. (2020) used a non-systematic, review to find out the effect of COVID-19 on the mental health of children and adolescents. The authors of this research article categorized mental health impacts through a systematic search on PubMed, Scopus, SciELO, and Google Scholar using the keywords ‘COVID-19,” ‘mental health’, ‘children’ and ‘adolescents’. This procedure enabled the sampling of 51 articles including research studies, editorials as well as commentaries, which employed various research methodologies and outcomes.

The main advantage of a non-systematic literature review is the lack of restrictions with the involvement of various studies and perspectives in the early phase of the pandemic. This breadth helped in making comparisons within and between clients and folders to make broader observations of increased anxiety and depression levels and broader observations of social support and routine maintenance (Meherali et al., 2021). Further, the use of studies from different countries helped to get a perspective of mental health problems around the world.

However, what might be considered the major drawback of the non-systematic approach applied in this paper is the weakness of the review. The lack of a clear method for article selection introduces the potential for large selection bias and decreases the level of reproducibility of the study. Through lack of meta-analysis or quantitative synthesis, there are shortcomings in achieving conclusive conclusions as well as in evaluating the standard quality or continuity of the studies (Samji et al., 2022). In addition, the use of secondary data in the study implies that findings obtained from various primary research works may not be well synchronized because study designs and sample populations differ.

Although with a non-systematic approach, authors provide useful exploratory evidence and recommendations, the applied technique weakness points to the further research necessity to provide a more systematic examination for providing a solid evidence base for conclusions making in the future.

4. Sampling Strategy

The article used a non-systematic sampling strategy within the reviewed scientific articles using databases such as PubMed, SCOPUS, SciELO, and Google Scholar. Lastly, Impact factor was given to recent studies, consensus statements and guidelines, of 77 articles critically reviewed this study selected 51. This approach emphasizes inclusiveness rather than rigid methodological perspective, useful at the emergent stage of a research when the world faces a new virus, COVID-19.

Strengths

Timeliness: It enabled quick collection of the appropriate information during the early stages of the pandemic.

Comprehensive Scope: With cross-sectional studies and editorials included, the study gave a detailed picture of the problem.

Flexibility: Used a number of available sources to offset their lack of primary data.

Weaknesses

Heterogeneity: These constitute some of the reasons why cross-study comparisons of the effectiveness and mechanism are difficult, and may lead to erroneous conclusions.

Potential Bias: There was a problem of author judgment in selecting which studies to include, increasing the possibility of leaving out important ones.

Lack of Primary Data: Secondary data may however provide a more superficial picture of the situation under study.

As such, this method is useful for background research but cannot be compared to systematic research or meta-analysis

5. Ethical Issues in Research

Research ethics is the general principles and rules of doing research, with a particular concern for the treatment of subjects. Ethical issues include obtaining the participant's consent, their privacy, their rights, and the right of the researcher to admit the research info to participants.

Miranda et al., (2020) work is best described as a non-systematic literature review that does not require actual interaction with the participants. For this reason, it does not have bureaucratic steps such as informed consent or ethical approval for data gathering. Nevertheless, there remain ethical issues of concern mainly in the selection and analysis of the literature. For example, the authors should ensure that only figures in the studies included for review met general ethical research practice, including getting permission to conduct participant-based studies and avoiding manipulating results.

One other objection relates to the non-systematic review approaches that can always lead to selection bias (Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2022). Such practice of including all articles without a set of specific criteria for their inclusion might put partiality or bias on the side of the authors by including articles that bear their leaning or bias. This could mislead stakeholders who are in the process of decision-making based on the research they find.

To overcome these challenges, future researchers could design SRRs that are based on clear selection criteria of studies. Also, they need to precisely assess the ethical aspects of the given studies so that the evidence used to support the findings complies with the ethical norms. In this way, the scientific reputation of the results of research can be preserved.

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6. Reflexivity and Positionality

This research does not give emphasis on reflexivity or positionality. Although it summarises literature and provides findings on the effects of COVID-19 on the mental health of children and adolescents, it lacks a method of explaining how the researchers impacted the process of identifying, analysing, or interpreting the included studies by the researchers themselves, their backgrounds and biases. Thus reflexivity and positionality could serve to increase the study’s credibility and help to make conclusions more accurate.

Reflexivity and positionality: Comparison of its importance

Bias Identification: It makes a form of accountability to demonstrate potential prejudicial beliefs that may influence the choice of articles to include in the analysis, interference of mental health results.

Context Sensitivity: It describes the concerns of how culture, geographical or organizational location shapes research questions in cross-cultural studies.

Ethical Responsibility: It’s only right that there is reflexivity when engaging with participants or data sources to avoid offending the participant by touching on issues such as mental health.

However, it would have been beneficial to include the following concepts in the study to improve their reliability and association with diverse contexts of mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic

7. Research Findings and Evaluation

Key Findings

Prevalence of Psychological Symptoms: The study points out elevated levels of general anxiety, depression, and PTSS (Post Traumatic stress symptoms) among children and adolescents of COVID-19 pandemic. The younger children had symptoms of separation anxiety and fear of getting their family members infected with the virus and the older adolescent had symptoms of anxiety, depression and irritability. This shows us that the symptoms may vary depending on age when the disorder or disturbance is manifested in children and adolescents.

Role of Protective and Risk Factors: It is also emphasised that risk reduction factors, including parental care, routines, and exercise most effectively contribute to the decrease of mental health costs. On the other hand, domestic violence as well as socio economic insecurity and interruptions including education were identified to worsen mental illness especially among children in helpless situations.

Gender and Socioeconomic Disparities: The study also pointed out girl adolescent’s increased vulnerability to anxiety and depression when compared to boys. Moreover, low-income children are also more exposed to unfair challenges regarding nutrition since schools supplied them with food, computer devices for online classes, and little ability to protect health and mental health. Economic status is one of the risk factors that significantly impacted mental health care during the pandemic.

Evaluation

Strength:

The four literature review models identify the strength of the study undertaken that has addressed various gaps comprehensively. It offers a general view of effects of the pandemic on children and adolescents mental health because of the generalization of findings from 51 studies done in different countries and on different populations. The inclusion of different validated measurement instruments including the GHQ-12, DASS-21 increases the reliability of the highlighted results.

Limitation:

The study utilises secondary data and employs a non-systematic review approach and so there is no possibility of arriving at conclusive discussions. The studies examined in this systematic review differ significantly in the sample size, and characteristics of the patients, as well as the outcomes measuring mental health status. Furthermore, absence of primary or longitudinal data also does not allow exploring long-term effects in detail.

8. Conclusion

The critical evaluation was based on the article by Miranda et al. (2020) regarding the effects of COVID-19 in children and adolescents. The study aimed at identifying concerns about the occurrence of mental health conditions including, anxiety disorders, depression and PTSS and factors; age, gender, socioeconomic status and protective factors ly family, structures and daily activities. The methods used were conducted based on non systematic review of articles where PubMed and Scopus were used in selecting 51 articles. The heterogeneity of the studies and the global focus provided useful exploratory data. However, the lending procedure virtually excluded careful and systematic selection criteria, which might lead to the selection bias and a number of studies’ irreproducibility. Primary data were not collected, and therefore, it should prompt further research in the same area with improved methodological frameworks.

Ethically, the study was carried out following all the ethical standards because it used secondary data but doing so, it pointed out a major weakness of meta-analysis in that there is always a risk that some of the studies included in the analysis may be biased or have been conducted unethically. As a result, reflexivity and positionality were not acknowledged directly yet they are fundamental in analyzing the discoveries. Some of the findings obtained included; escalation in PSMS, Gender; girls had more anxiety or depression, Protective factors; high structured routines. Specific areas of concern were identified in this category including; Low income earners, and therefore the need to target those vulnerable groups.

References

• De Miranda, D.M., da Silva Athanasio, B., Oliveira, A.C.S. and Simoes-e-Silva, A.C., 2020. How is COVID-19 pandemic impacting mental health of children and adolescents? International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 51, p.101845. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7481176/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2025].
• De Figueiredo, C.S., Sandre, P.C., Portugal, L.C.L., Mázala-de-Oliveira, T., da Silva Chagas, L., Raony, Í., Ferreira, E.S., Giestal-de-Araujo, E., Dos Santos, A.A. and Bomfim, P.O.S., 2021. COVID-19 pandemic impact on children and adolescents' mental health: Biological, environmental, and social factors. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 106, p.110171. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7657035/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2025].
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• Meherali, S., Punjani, N., Louie-Poon, S., Abdul Rahim, K., Das, J.K., Salam, R.A. and Lassi, Z.S., 2021. Mental health of children and adolescents amidst COVID-19 and past pandemics: a rapid systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(7), p.3432. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3432/pdf [Accessed 21 Jan. 2025].
• O’Sullivan, K., Clark, S., McGrane, A., Rock, N., Burke, L., Boyle, N., Joksimovic, N. and Marshall, K., 2021. A qualitative study of child and adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(3), p.1062. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1062/pdf [Accessed 21 Jan. 2025].
• Ravens-Sieberer, U., Kaman, A., Erhart, M., Devine, J., Schlack, R. and Otto, C., 2022. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on quality of life and mental health in children and adolescents in Germany. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 31(6), pp.879-889. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00787-021-01726-5?s=09%23auth-Ulrike-Ravens_Sieberer [Accessed 21 Jan. 2025].
• Samji, H., Wu, J., Ladak, A., Vossen, C., Stewart, E., Dove, N., Long, D. and Snell, G., 2022. Mental health impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on children and youth–a systematic review. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 27(2), pp.173-189. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8653204/?utm_source=miragenews&utm_medium=miragenews&utm_campaign=news [Accessed 21 Jan. 2025].