Abstract
ObjectiveSweden is an international exception in its public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a higher number of deaths, albeit not pediatric, compared with other Nordic countries. The objective of this study was to investigate what worries children and adolescents living in Sweden expressed in relation to the pandemic.MethodsUsing an anonymous web-survey, 1,047 children (4–12 years; N = 717) and adolescents (13–18 years; N = 330) responded to five background and four open-ended questions, one of which was: Is there anything that you are worried about when it comes to ‘Corona’? The responses were coded using manifest content analysis. Interrater reliability was .95, assessed on the code level.ResultsWorry was common (77%); mostly (60%) related to disease or death of elderly relatives, parents, the child him/herself or general worry for the elderly/risk groups. Existential worry (15%) comprised worries about the future, including economy and worries about the world perishing or the contagion becoming uncontrollable. A developmental trajectory was evident in the nature of responses. Adolescents’ worries about the future included missing out on their youth and employment. They also worried about society (6%), for example, the future of democracy and the world economy. There was no indication of socioeconomic status or geographic area (urban vs. rural) affecting the presence of worrisome thoughts.ConclusionsWorry about “Corona” was common. Universal preventative mental health intervention is warranted and could be conducted in the school setting. Intervention could be tailored by age, covering discussion on financial aspects with adolescents.
Highlights
COVID-19 is a disease caused by a novel coronavirus calledSARS-CoV-2
There was no indication of socioeconomic status or geographic area affecting the presence of worrisome thoughts
This study investigated the worrisome thoughts of children and adolescents living in Sweden expressed in relation to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
COVID-19 is a disease caused by a novel coronavirus calledSARS-CoV-2. The World Health Organization (WHO) first learned of this new virus in December 2019, following a report of a cluster of cases of “viral pneumonia” in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China (World Health Organization, 2020). As of January 2021, there had been over 90 million confirmed cases and over 2 million deaths worldwide (World Health Organization, 2020). In Sweden, there were over 500 thousand confirmed cases and over 10,000 deaths (The Swedish Public Health Agency, 2020a). Sweden has been an international exception in its public health response to the pandemic with no lockdown at any stage. At the time of this study (April– May 2020), only prohibition of gatherings for more than 50 people (Regeringen, 2020) voluntary restrictions on travels and well-endorsed recommendations on social distancing and working from home, when possible, were in place (Socialstyrelsen, 2020).
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