Feyisola Babarinde

Lancaster Medical School (Bailrigg) | Year 3 | Degree: Medicine

What impact has the COVID-19 pandemic had on the psychosocial wellbeing of children and young people?

COVID-19 pandemic has affected adults, children, and young people (CYP) differently. This Special Study Module (SSM) looked at the pandemic’s impact on the psychosocial wellbeing of CYP . Literature searches were conducted using well-established databases and the grey literature. Ten articles were included (due to the novelty of the topic, most were from 2019 onwards). Results showed that the pandemic had both negative and positive impacts on the psychosocial wellbeing of CYP. Negative impacts included depressive symptoms, and boredom. Positive impacts included resilience and phenomena such as increased pro-social behaviours related to internet use. Most of the articles published assessed mental health problems (such as anxiety and depression), rather than psychosocial wellbeing. Studies were also often in high-resource settings, so findings could not be generalised because many CYP in low-income countries and lower socio-economic households may not have access to internet and electronic devices. There was also more in the literature about older children compared to younger ones. More work is needed to study the impact of the pandemic on the psychosocial wellbeing of CYP, especially younger children, to enable their voices to be heard and to inform strategic planning and policy making to tackle COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics.

Feyisola Babarinde

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Feyisola Babarinde

Lancaster Medical School (Bailrigg) | Year 3 | Degree: Medicine

What impact has the COVID-19 pandemic had on the psychosocial wellbeing of children and young people?

Image of a child during the COVID-19 pandemic. Credits UNICEF/UNI/339380Singh

Introduction COVID-19 pandemic has affected adults, children, and young people (CYP) differently. This presentation is about the pandemic’s impact on the psychosocial wellbeing of CYP (defined here as up to the age of 18 years).

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Methods Literature searches were conducted using well-established databases and the grey literature. Ten articles were included (due to the novelty of the topic, most were from 2019 onwards).

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Results Results showed that the pandemic had both negative and positive impacts on the psychosocial wellbeing of CYP. All the ten articles reported negative symptoms including anxiety and depression, fear, worry, stress and boredom. Positive impacts included resilience and phenomena such as increased pro-social behaviours related to internet use.

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Negative Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on psychosocial wellbeing of CYP

Loss of social activities (such as end of the year prom and birthday parties).
Loss of social interactions at school e.g. during play time and sports activities.
Missed school meals leading to undernutrition.
Increased frustrations from older siblings to younger siblings due to boredom and confined space to play.
Young people conveyed their frustrations to the society for blaming them for transmitting SARS-COV-2 to vulnerable people by not obeying COVID-19 restriction rules, thus negatively impacting on their mental health wellbeing.

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Positive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychosocial wellbeing of CYP.

Social bonding with families via phones and internet
Online schooling increased social interactions among peers making them more happy
Online sporting activities increased level of resilience and morale
Lockdown was seen as a break from bad experiences at school and relaxation from exam stress
The flexibility that home schooling provided e.g. walking a dog after a lesson.

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Conclusion: Most of the articles published assessed mental health problems (such as anxiety and depression), rather than psychosocial wellbeing. Studies were also often in high-resource settings, so findings could not be generalised because many CYP in low-income countries and lower socio-economic households may not have access to internet and electronic devices. There was also more in the literature about older children compared to younger ones. Implication for future research: More work is needed to study the impact of the pandemic on the psychosocial wellbeing of CYP, especially younger children, to enable their voices to be heard and to inform strategic planning and policy making to tackle COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics.

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References: (1) Constantini K, Markus I, Epel N, Jakobovich R, Gepner Y, Lev-Ari S. Continued Participation of Israeli Adolescents in Online Sports Programs during the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Associated with Higher Resilience. International journal of environmental research and public health. (2) Pizarro-Ruiz JP, Ordóñez-Camblor N. Effects of Covid-19 confinement on the mental health of children and adolescents in Spain. Scientific reports. (3) Meherali S, Punjani N, Louie-Poon S, Abdul Rahim K, Das JK, Salam RA, et al. Mental Health of Children and Adolescents Amidst COVID-19 and Past Pandemics: A Rapid Systematic Review. International journal of environmental research and public health. (4) Zhou S-J, Zhang L-G, Wang L-L, Guo Z-C, Wang J-Q, Chen J-C, et al. Prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of psychological health problems in Chinese adolescents during the outbreak of COVID-19. European child & adolescent psychiatry. (5) McKune SL, Acosta D, Diaz N, Brittain K, Beaulieu DJ-, Maurelli AT, et al. Psychosocial health of school-aged children during the initial COVID-19 saferat-home school mandates in Florida: a cross-sectional study. BMC public health. (6) Romero E, López-Romero L, Domínguez-Álvarez B, Villar P, Gómez-Fraguela JA. Testing the Effects of COVID-19 Confinement in Spanish Children: The Role of Parents’ Distress, Emotional Problems and Specific Parenting. International journal of environmental research and public health. (7) Buzzi C, Tucci M, Ciprandi R, Brambilla I, Caimmi S, Ciprandi G, et al. The psycho-social effects of COVID-19 on Italian adolescents’ attitudes and behaviors. Italian journal of pediatrics. (8) Boldt K, Coenen M, Movsisyan A, Voss S, Rehfuess E, Kunzler AM, et al. Interventions to Ameliorate the Psychosocial Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children-A Systematic Review. International journal of environmental research and public health. (9) van de Groep S, Zanolie K, Green KH, Sweijen SW, Crone EA. A daily diary study on adolescents’ mood, empathy, and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. PloS one. (10) Scott S, McGowan VJ, Visram S. “I’m Gonna Tell You about How Mrs Rona Has Affected Me”. Exploring Young People’s Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in North East England: A Qualitative Diary-Based Study. International journal of environmental research and public health. Acknowledgement: I would like to thank my supervisor Prof Rachel Isba for her guidance in the writing up of this short research. I would also like to thank my children for the inspiration to look into the impact of COVID-19 among children and young people.

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