Changes in mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexican youth: Insights from the Voces-19 study

Previous research suggests that the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were stronger during the first months of it. It has also been proposed that those impacts depended on gender and other social determinants.We aim to describe the change in prevalence of mental health problems (symptoms of common mental disorders [CMD], alcohol, and drug use) between two time periods during the pandemic, and the association of mental health problems with social determinants, in adolescents and young adults in Mexico.We conducted a repeated cross-section analysis of data from VoCes-19, an online survey in November 2020 to February 2021 and November 2021 to March 2022 (combined n = ×224,099). We assessed the change in the prevalence of mental health problems, the differences in prevalence and change in the prevalence by gender, and the association of social determinants and pandemic-related variables with mental health problems, by means of multivariate regression models.The prevalence of CMD decreased (46.0% vs. 42.4%), while the prevalence of alcohol (frequent use 8.4% vs. 10.3%) and drug use (4.6% vs. 7.7%) increased. The three conditions increased more among girls/young women and trans/queer/non-binary participants than among boys/young men.The results point to the importance of considering the gendered social context of young people. A better understanding of the social circumstances that relate with mental health is required to inform interventions for these age groups.