Changes in Emotional-Behavioral Functioning Among Pre-school Children Following the Initial Stage Danish COVID-19 Lockdown and Home Confinement.

Ina Olmer Specht,Ann-Kristine Nielsen,Sofus Christian Larsen,Berit Lilienthal Heitmann,Jeanett Friis Rohde

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643057

Ina Olmer Specht, Ann-Kristine Nielsen + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643057

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Abstract

Unintended negative outcomes on child behavior due to lockdown and home confinement following the corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic needs highlighting to effectively address these issues in the current and future health crises. In this sub-study of the ODIN-study, the objectives were to determine whether the Danish lockdown and home confinement following the COVID-19 pandemic affected changes in emotional-behavioral functioning of pre-school-aged children using the validated Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) answered by parents shortly before lockdown and 3 weeks into lockdown, and moreover, to examine whether baseline family and social characteristics could predict change in child emotional-behavioral functioning during lockdown. Parents of 40 (82%) children with a mean(SD) age of 5.0(0.7) completed the baseline questionnaire and the lockdown follow-up questionnaire. The SDQ-Total difficulties score (SDQ-TD) and Prosocial Behavioral score (PSB) changed significantly from pre- to lockdown [SDQ-TD mean(SD): 6.0(3.8) and 7.9(5.2); P = 0.02, respectively and PSB mean(SD): 8.5(1.4) and 7.9(1.5); P = 0.03, respectively]. Attending leisure time activities before lockdown was a predicting factor of changes to the worse in the children’s SDQ-TD scores, with a mean difference in SDQ-TD between those with and without activities of 3.16 (95%CI 0.27–6.12); P = 0.03. In conclusion, the study showed a modest decrease in child-emotional behavioral functioning during the COVID-19 lockdown, potentially due to parental stress. Although these results might not be generalizable due to small sample size and selected population, the results point to a need of a greater awareness of child mental wellbeing during a lockdown situation.

Highlights

A corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic was declared on March 11 by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020)
Almost all (97.6%) of the children were within the normal Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)-TD scores of 0–13 points at pre-lockdown and during lockdown (92.7%)
Despite a small sample size, the current study indicated that lockdown may have had adverse consequences for SDQ-TD score

Summary

Introduction

A corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic was declared on March 11 by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020). At 9 P.M. the same day the Danish Prime Minister announced lockdown of all non-critical functioning public institutions like kindergartens, schools, sport activities etc. Public employees with jobs that were non-essential in relation to care and treatment were sent on paid leave, and employees in the private sector were encouraged to work from home when possible. This was done to contain and mitigate spread of COVID-19 in Denmark. Due to the pandemic affecting millions of peoples, drastic changes were required to deal with the COVID-19 spread, but these radical societal changes may be accompanied by unintended adverse psychosocial outcomes (Mackolil and Mackolil, 2020)

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