Neugebauer, MartinMartinNeugebauerPatzina, AlexanderAlexanderPatzina0000-0001-5039-7016Dietrich, HansHansDietrichSandner, MalteMalteSandner2025-06-252025-06-2520241468-26720266-7215https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/108461How much did young people suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic? A growing number of studies address this question, but they often lack a comparison group that was unaffected by the pandemic, and the observation window is usually short. Here, we compared the 2-year development of life satisfaction of German high school students during COVID-19 (N = 2,698) with the development in prepandemic cohorts (N = 4,834) with a difference-in-differences design. We found a decline in life satisfaction in winter 2020/2021 (Cohen’s d = -0.40) that was approximately three times stronger than that in the general population and persisted until winter 2021/2022. Young people found some restrictions particularly burdensome, especially travel restrictions, bans on cultural events, and the closure of bars/clubs.engadolescentsadaptationhappinesshealthtransitionstress300article10.1093/esr/jcad077