Peer Education Intervention on Adolescents' Anxiety, Depression, and Sleep Disorder during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Adolescents' anxiety and depression during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak cannot be ignored. In public health crisis events, adolescents are prone to negative psychological problems, such as anxiety and depression. Hence, this research focuses on the use of reasonable and efficient methods to intervene in adolescents' psychological problems during the COVID-19 pandemic.

From February to April 2020, we conducted an anonymous online survey on a total of 1,200 adolescents in the provinces of Hunan and Guangxi in China. Moreover, we randomly divided a total of 150 middle school students with anxiety scores greater than 50 and volunteered to participate in the intervention experiment into control and intervention groups, with 75 members in each group. On the basis of the proposed routine treatment, we conducted 8 weeks of model 328-based peer education intervention in the intervention group.

After the intervention, the self-rating anxiety scale scores (SAS) of the intervention group are better than those of the control group (P<0.001). Moreover, the self-rating depression scale (SDS) scores of both groups are reduced, but the effect is more significant on the intervention group (P<0.001) than on the control group. Finally, the total Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scores of both groups are reduced, but the effect is more significant on the intervention group than on the control group (P=0.001 and <0.001, respectively).

Model 328-based peer education intervention can significantly reduce the level of anxiety and depression in adolescents and improve their sleep quality.