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The prevalence of depressive symptoms rose substantially among young children during the lockdown across the UK in response to the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, finds research focusing on a region of England published online at Childhood Disease Archives.
The effect size was medium to large, the findings indicate, which have implications for future partial or full school closures, the researchers suggest.
Social distancing and school closings during the prolonged closure in the UK earlier this year are believed to have seriously affected children’s mental health.
But there has been little solid evidence to support this, largely because it is difficult to find good baseline data, for the same children, collected before the first lockdown on March 23.
The researchers were able to solve this based on data on children living in the east of England who were part of the Resilience in Education and Development (RED) study.
During the confinement, 168 of their parents, equivalent to 29% of the overall sample, completed online validated mental health assessments to rate their children’s emotional well-being, anxiety and depression.
These ratings were then compared to baseline data collected around 18 months earlier, which included a combination of mental health measures rated by parents, teachers, and children.
Compared to the initial initial evaluation, there were no significant changes in levels of anxiety or emotional well-being during confinement.
But a significant increase of 0.74 was seen in depressive symptoms, the effect size of which was medium to large. Simply put, this means that, on average, there was about a 70% chance that depressive symptoms would worsen during confinement in any child.
These findings held true even after taking into account potentially influential factors such as age, gender, and socioeconomic status, although more children are needed to confirm this, the researchers say.
To find out whether the changes during the lockdown might have been driven by specific items on the depression scale, the researchers analyzed changes in responses to each individual question on the mental health scales.
This revealed significant increases for 4 out of 5 of the questions about depression during confinement with respect to lethargy, difficulty enjoying activities, and feelings of sadness or emptiness.
This is an observational study; the numbers are relatively small; and from one area of England only, so it may not be more applicable, the researchers caution.
But they note: “The background is that children’s mental health appears to be worsening in successive cohorts, and even before closure, resources for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services were depleted.
“Current findings suggest that blocking measures will likely exacerbate this, specifically with an increase in symptoms of childhood depression, something that was previously relatively uncommon in children of this age.”
They add: “Our findings emphasize the need to incorporate the potential impact of confinement on children’s mental health in planning the ongoing response to and recovery from the global pandemic.”
Dr. Karen Street is a pediatric consultant and mental health leader at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), which is a co-owner of the journal with BMJ.
She commented: “This study reports what many pediatricians have observed: While children rarely get sick with COVID-19, they have been significantly affected by measures taken to reduce transmission of the virus.
He added: “The RCPCH welcomes the government’s continued commitment to keep schools open. It would also be nice if extracurricular activities and opportunities for children and youth return as soon as possible.
“While we hope that for many children the return to normality will see a ‘rebound’ in their emotional well-being, we also know that the socioeconomic impact of confinement for many families will continue for many years, and that this will have negative side effects on health. children’s mental.
“Persistent mental health problems in childhood and adolescence are associated with poor outcomes in terms of educational attainment, employment, and long-term physical and mental health, so it is vital that there is sufficient investment in health, education and volunteering to support children’s mental health as they recover from the pandemic. “
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External peer review? yes
Type of evidence: observational
Subjects: 7-12 years
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