Introduction
There is growing evidence that the prevalence of mental health conditions in young people, particularly girls,To advise immediate and future policy decisions, better understanding is needed on what factors affect young people’s mental health, particularly during challenging circumstances.We aimed to disentangle known difficulties in students’ mental health and mental well-being from changes specific to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also secondarily explored which individual, home, friendship, and school factors were associated with changes in students’ mental health difficulties and mental well-being during the pandemic and with adjustment to lockdown and return to school.