For several years, school children across Europe and worldwide dealt  with a variety of crises– such as the Covid-19 pandemic (e.g., school closures), the war in Ukraine and Gaza, the climate crisis— all of them with a likely impact on children’s social and emotional development, A particularly severe and profound impact of these events was shown on affective and internalized behavioral disorders (Cena et al., 2022; Kaman et al. 2023; Krammer, et al. 2022; Mulkey et al. 2023; Ravens-Sieberer et al. 2022; Walz et al. 2022).  As outlined by Mulkey et al. (2023), a considerable degree of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic go well beyond the viral infection and have had a significant indirect effect on multiple areas of child development, school readiness, educational attainment, socialization skills and mental health, just to name some examples.In this regard, Walz et al. (2022) outlined in their meta-analysis, encompassing almost 800.000 European participants, a significant increase in depression symptoms, in particular for 16-18 years old male adolescents during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the authors, female adolescents also showed an increase in depression rate when accounting for only clinical depression symptoms (Walz et al. 2022). Along these lines, Cena et al. (2022), showed a steady increase of loneliness, affective disorders, and suicidal ideation for Italian adolescents. Finally, also Krammer et al. (2022) showed a significant increase of internalized behavioral problems for Austrian male and female sixth graders during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, one of the shortcomings of the mentioned research  is the primarily focus on adolescents. Moreover, the focus lies on a rather short time period, during the pandemic or shortly afterwards.

This paper  aims to address the above-mentioned  issues concentrating on 9-13 years old school children, and comparing data from ten years ago with data from some time after experiencing the Covid-19 restrictions. The main research question focuses on differences in the distribution and incidence of depression related affective disorders in Styria (Austrian):

1.)    Are there any significant differences in the distribution and incidence of depression-related symptoms between the Styrian general school population of the years 2013 and 2024?

In this regard, we assume an increase of affective disorders in the Styrian school population. In addition, we will investigate  whether this increase is focused only on specific groups at risk (e.g., low-income families), or if it is a more general phenomenon affecting the entire school population. To learn more about the connections between depression-related symptoms and other individual background factors, we also considered information on  social media usage, educational background of the family, depression cases in the family etc.

The paper relies on two different data sets originally used for the standardization of the “Depressionstest Kind – DTK -II” (Depressiontest Children II: Rossmann, 2014) in 2013 and for the current re-standardization in 2024. This test is a questionnaire for self-assessment of children's current depressive state. The child's well-being is mapped on three dimensions relevant to depression, which relate to 1) dysphoric mood and self-esteem problems, 2) agitated behavior and 3) fatigue and other psychosomatic aspects. The questionnaire consists of 55 short and child-friendly items, which the children can answer with "yes" or "no". For 2013 the standardization sample consists of approx. 1200 students and can be seen as representative for the Styrian school population. For the 2024 data set, we are currently gathering data (completed in April), again aiming at a sample size of 1200 students in Styrian primary and secondary schools. Beside the scores of the DTK-II for 2013 and 2024, also social and economic background information of the students was/is being collected. Additional to descriptive statistics, the usage of multivariate statistical methods (i.e., regression and analysis of variance) is planned for analyzing the data gathered in 2013 and 2024, respectively.

As the 2024 data is currently being collected, we can only speculate about the outcomes. We do expect an increase of depression-related symptoms in the 2024 dataset compared to the data gathered in 2013, due to the different crises children experienced in the last years. We will also be able to present findings on connections between DTK-II scores and relevant background variables and they will be discussed in the light of intervention programmes matching students’ needs.

Cena, L., Trainini, A., Zecca, S., Zappa, S., Cunegatti, F. & Buizza, C. (2022). Loneliness, affective disorders, suicidal ideation, and the use of psychoactive substances in a sample of adolescents during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A cross‐sectional study. In: Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 36, 188–198. Kaman, A., Erhart, M., Devine, J., Reiß, F., Napp, A.‑K., Simon, A. M., Hurrelmann, K., Schlack, R., Hölling, H., Wieler, L. H. & Ravens-Sieberer, U [Ulrike] (2023). Two Years of Pandemic: the Mental Health and Quality of Life of Children and Adolescents - findings of the COPSY longitudinal study. Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 120(15), 269–270. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.m2023.0001. Krammer, M., Tritremmel, G., Auferbauer, M. & Palecezek, L. (2022). Durch die Coronapandemie belastet? Der Einfluss von Covid-19 induzierter Angst und Besorgnis auf die sozial-emotionale Entwicklung 12-13 Jähriger in Österreich. In: Zeitschrift für Bildungsforschung. https://doi.org/10.1007/s35834-022-00336-8. Mulkey S.B., Bearer C.F., Molloy E.J. (2023). Indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children relate to the child's age and experience. Pediatric Ressearch, 94(5), 1586-1587. https://doi.org.10.1038/s41390-023-02681-4. Ravens-Sieberer, U., Kaman, A., Erhart, M., Devine, J., Schlack, R. & 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), 879–889. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01726-5. Rossmann, P. (2014). Depressionstest für Kinder – II (DTK – II). Hogrefe. Walz, L., Dannheim, H., Pfadenhauer, I., Fegert, L., Bujard, J. (2022): Increase of depression among children and adolescents after the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic in Europe: a systematic review and meta analysis. In: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 16(109).