• Question: What was the most fascinating ‘discovery’ you made while you were researching into the effects of Corona on children’s mental health.

    Asked by anon-269713 to Madeleine on 16 Nov 2020.
    • Photo: Madeleine Steeds

      Madeleine Steeds answered on 16 Nov 2020:

      Hi so that’s not something I actively research much but I’ll give you my thoughts on it and maybe some of the other psychologists could chime in too.
      I think for me one of the most interesting effects of COVID on children’s health is the social aspect. A lot less people can meet up now and while technology has helped people communicate with their friends, there’s something called “the digital divide” where people with less money have less access to technology. So children from poorer backgrounds are less able to use technology socialise and so are going to have worse mental health and be effected more by loneliness.
      I saw there have been some findings that have caused children to have set backs in their development as a result so it’s definitely having a big impact..
      Sorry I don’t know more but I hope that was helpful. Thanks for the question.

Comments

  • Photo: Simona

    Simona commented on :

    Hi, I do look at the effects that corona pandemic had on children’s mental heath and there has been many interesting things (you can see them here http://cospaceoxford.org/findings/). Most recently I was studying overtime patterns in children’s and adolescent behavioural, emotional, and restlessness/attention difficulties from March to October. What was very interesting was that behavioural and restlessness/attention difficulties really increased from March to June (whilst the lockdown was active and schools were closed) and steadily decreased since. This mostly applied to younger children (primary school aged) rather than teenagers. It seems that teenagers have managed it a bit better through the lockdown (potentially due to ability to keep in touch with their friends over the phone and social media). Yet, as Madeline says “the digital divide” issue is important here. We have definitely seen that children and adolescents from lower income families have struggled throughout the pandemic and have not benefited as much from summer holidays as other kids did.

  • modalex commented on :

    IMPORTANT: This question and its answers are about coronavirus (COVID-19). The information on this page might be out of date or wrong. For up-to-date health information and advice, please go to the NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

  • Photo: Maggi

    Maggi commented on :

    I was recently part of a project looking at the impact of Covid on mental health and wellbeing in secondary school students in Scotland. In our study, we found little change in young people’s reported levels of anxiety and depression, but a huge increase in young people reporting symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This means that many young people are often thinking about Covid, and struggling to think about other things apart from Covid! This was especially true of people who had had their high school exams cancelled. I think the most surprising finding was that some young people said that they benefitted from a break in school – they found more time for their hobbies and interests, had more time to exercise and be outdoors, and spent more time with friends and family. As others have said though, it’s a really different picture for each individual person and lots of factors contribute to how people have been doing throughout the covid outbreak and lockdowns.