Abstract
In relation to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, a large body of research has identified a negative impact on individuals' affectivity, frequently documented by increased prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms. For children, this research was less extensive, was mainly based on caregivers' reports and neglected personality assessment. In order to measure the impact of the pandemic, and the fears it caused, on primary school children's affect and personality, 323 (180 boys and 143 girls) Italian third, fourth and fifth graders were assessed between October and November 2020, namely during the second wave of COVID-19 infections in Italy, with validated self-reports of affect (Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children, PANAS-C), fear of COVID-19 (Fear of COVID-19 Scale, FCV-19S) and personality (junior Temperament and Character Inventory, jTCI). In comparison with PANAS-C and jTCI normative scores collected prior to the pandemic, data obtained from children in 2020 showed unchanged affect scores in the overall sample, a decrease of Positive Affect in girls, and a decrease in the Harm Avoidance and an increase in the Self-Transcendence scales of personality. Fear of COVID-19 scores were positively correlated with Negative Affect scores and negatively predicted by children's personality profile of resilience (calculated using scores on the Harm Avoidance and the Self-Directedness scales of personality). These results suggested that Italian primary school children, especially boys, maintained their pre-pandemic levels of affect (or restored them after the first COVID-19 wave) and partially diverged from the typical development of personality in an apparently positive sense, namely toward more courageous/optimistic and spiritual profiles. This sort of children's post-traumatic growth might also be attributed to children's family and education systems, which should continue to be supported to promote and maintain community mental health.
Highlights
After the outbreak of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 and the consequent public health policies put in action to contain the waves of infections, a large body of research has documented a worsening of public mental health
After excluding the data from 38 children (18 questionnaires were not complete, three questionnaires had been completed by children with intellectual disabilities, 17 junior Temperament and Character Inventory (jTCI) reports had no valid responses for control items), the final sample consisted of 323 children
Children assessed during the pandemic showed lower HA and higher ST scores than children assessed before the pandemic in 2010–2011
Summary
After the outbreak of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 and the consequent public health policies put in action to contain the waves of infections, a large body of research has documented a worsening of public mental health. According to the model of Clark and Watson [17], they may share a component of general emotional distress, which can be labeled as negative affect (NA), and are differentiated by the levels of positive affect (PA), which is characteristically lower in depression than in anxiety This model, together with the resulting scale for measuring positive and negative affectivity (i.e., the Positive and Negative Affect Scale, PANAS) [18], has been largely used both on adults and younger people [19,20,21,22,23]. It seems important to assess the levels of positive and negative affect in the population during the COVID19 pandemic and to compare them with the normative levels collected before the pandemic This pre- vs during pandemic comparison, which has been performed for measures such as anxiety, depression and psychological well-being [e.g., [25,26,27]], has not been frequently carried out so far on affect scores.
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