Some children benefited from COVID lockdowns
By UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
As
the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, many countries imposed strict lockdown
measures, with workplaces and businesses closing and people forced to remain at
home. Measures also included school closures, with exceptions for young people
whose parents were classified as essential workers and those considered
‘vulnerable’, for example children under the care of social services and those
in families or social situations deemed by schools to be of concern.
“The
common narrative that the pandemic has had overwhelmingly negative effects on
the lives of children and young people might not tell the full story.” — Emma Soneson
Several
studies have reported that the lockdown had a negative impact on the mental
health and wellbeing of young people, but this effect has not been uniformly
reported, with a number of studies suggesting that some young people may have
benefited from lockdown.
Emma Soneson, a PhD student and Gates Scholar at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, said: “The common narrative that the pandemic has had overwhelmingly negative effects on the lives of children and young people might not tell the full story. In fact, it seems as though a sizeable number of children and young people may have experienced what they felt was improved wellbeing during the first national lockdown of 2020.
“After
hearing from patients in our clinical practice and informally from several
parents and young people that they thought the lockdown was beneficial for
their or their child’s mental health, we decided to look at this trend.”
Ms.
Soneson and colleagues explored this issue using the OxWell Student Survey, a
large, school-based survey of students aged eight to 18 years living in
England. More than 17,000 students took part in the June/July 2020 survey,
during the tail end of the first national lockdown, answering questions about
their experiences of the pandemic, school, home life, and relationships, among
others. The results of their research have been published in European Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry.
The
team found that one in three students thought their mental wellbeing had
improved during the first lockdown. In fact, an almost identical number of
students fell into each of the three categories: their mental wellbeing had
improved; there had been no change; or they had experienced a deterioration to
their wellbeing.
The
highest proportions of students who reported improved mental wellbeing were
among those who were in school every day (39%) and most days (35%), while the
highest proportion of students who reported worse wellbeing were those who
attended just once or twice (39%).
Students
who felt they had had better wellbeing during lockdown were more likely than
their peers to report positive lockdown experiences of school, home,
relationships, and lifestyle. For example, compared with their peers, a greater
percentage of students reporting better wellbeing also reported decreases in
bullying, improved relationships with friends and family, less loneliness,
better management of schoolwork, more sleep, and more exercise during lockdown
compared with before.
Professor
Peter Jones, also from Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge,
said: “What we’ve seen is a complex mix of factors that affect whether a
child’s mental health and wellbeing was affected by the lockdown. These range
from their mental health before the pandemic through to their relationships
with their families and peers, and their attitudes towards school.”
While
previous studies have reported young people worrying about the impact of
lockdown on friendships, nearly half of those who reported improved mental
wellbeing in this new study reported feeling less left out and lonely and
having better relationships with friends and family. In part, this may be
because access to digital forms of social interaction can mitigate the negative
effects of reduced face-to-face contact. With many parents and carers at home,
there was also potential for improved family relationships.
One
specific aspect of peer relationships that changed during the pandemic was
bullying. The researchers found that most young people who had been bullied in
the past year reported that the bullying had reduced. The proportion that
reported that they were bullied less than before lockdown was higher for those
who reported improved wellbeing (92%) than for those who reported no change
(83%) or deterioration in their wellbeing (81%).
For
approximately half of the young people who reported improved mental wellbeing,
lockdown was associated with improvements in sleep and exercise – for example,
49% of those who reported improved mental wellbeing reported sleeping more,
compared with 30% of those who reported no change and 19% of those who reported
deterioration.
Family
relationships also clearly played a part: the proportion of students who
reported that they were getting along with household members better than before
lockdown was higher for the group who reported improved mental wellbeing (53%)
than for the groups who reported no change (26%) or deterioration (21%), with a
similar pattern for getting along with friends (41%, 26%, and 27%
respectively).
Professor
Mina Fazel from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford said: “While the pandemic has
undoubtedly had negative consequences for many, it is important to keep in mind
that this is not the case for all children and young people. We are interested
in how we can learn from this group and determine if some of the changes can be
sustained in order to promote better mental health and wellbeing moving
forward.”
Some
of the school-related factors that may have influenced how a young person
responded to the lockdown include: the increased opportunities for flexible and
tailored teaching that encouraged different styles of learning; smaller class
sizes and more focused attention from teachers for those attending school; and
later waking times and more freedom during the school day.
Reference:
“Happier during lockdown: a descriptive analysis of self-reported wellbeing in
17,000 UK school students during Covid-19 lockdown” by Emma Soneson, Stephen
Puntis, Nikki Chapman, Karen L. Mansfield, Peter B. Jones and Mina Fazel, 17
February 2022, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
DOI:
10.1007/s00787-021-01934-z
The
research was supported by the Gates Cambridge Trust, the National Institute for
Health Research, the Westminster Foundation and UK Research and Innovation.
Emma
Soneson is a PhD student at Clare College, Cambridge.