How did the mental health symptoms of children and adolescents change over early lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK?

Polly Waite,Adrienne Shum,Samantha Pearcey,Cathy Creswell,Jasmine A L Raw,Praveetha Patalay

doi:10.1111/jcv2.12009

Abstract

BackgroundThe COVID‐19 pandemic has caused extensive disruption to the lives of children and young people. Understanding the psychological effects on children and young people, in the context of known risk factors is crucial to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. This study set out to explore how mental health symptoms in children and adolescents changed over a month of full lockdown in the United Kingdom in response to the pandemic.MethodsUK‐based parents and carers (n = 2673) of school‐aged children and young people aged between 4 and 16 years completed an online survey about their child's mental health at two time points between March and May 2020, during early lockdown. The survey examined changes in emotional symptoms, conduct problems and hyperactivity/inattention.ResultsThe findings highlighted particular deteriorations in mental health symptoms among preadolescent children, which translated to a 10% increase in those meeting possible/probable caseness criteria for emotional symptoms, a 20% increase in hyperactivity/inattention, and a 35% increase in conduct problems. In contrast, changes among adolescents were smaller (4% and 8% increase for hyperactivity/inattention and conduct problems, respectively) with a small reduction in emotional symptoms (reflecting a 3% reduction in caseness). Overall, there were few differences in change in symptoms or caseness over time according to demographic characteristics, but children and young people in low income households and those with special educational needs and/or neurodevelopmental disorders exhibited elevated symptoms (and caseness) at both time points.ConclusionsThe findings highlight important areas of concern in terms of the potential impact of the first national lockdown on children and young people's adjustment. Developing an understanding of who has been most severely affected by the pandemic, and in what ways, is crucial in order to target effective support where it is most needed.

Highlights

While children and young people are at low risk of infection from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), the pandemic and the measures taken to try to minimise the spread of the virus, such as lockdown, school closures and social distancing, have caused extensive disruption to the lives of children and young people
How did mental health of participating children and adolescents change during early lockdown in the United Kingdom —in terms of both continuous symptoms and ‘caseness’?
The findings highlighted particular deteriorations in mental health symptoms among preadolescent children, which translated to a 10% increase in those meeting possible/probable caseness criteria for emotional symptoms, a 20% increase in hyperactivity/inattention, and a 35% increase in conduct problems

Summary

Introduction

While children and young people are at low risk of infection from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), the pandemic and the measures taken to try to minimise the spread of the virus, such as lockdown, school closures and social distancing, have caused extensive disruption to the lives of children and young people. Understanding the psychological effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on children and young people, in the context of known risk factors is crucial to mitigate the effects of the pandemic (Holmes et al, 2020). We have recently started to see reports based on comparisons between children and young people's mental health prior to the pandemic and at a particular point of time during the pandemic. Understanding the psychological effects on children and young people, in the context of known risk factors is crucial to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. Results: The findings highlighted particular deteriorations in mental health symptoms among preadolescent children, which translated to a 10% increase in those meeting possible/probable caseness criteria for emotional symptoms, a 20% increase in hyperactivity/inattention, and a 35% increase in conduct problems. Developing an understanding of who has been most severely affected by the pandemic, and in what ways, is crucial in order to target effective support where it is most needed

Methods

Results

Conclusion