Waite, P;
Pearcey, S;
Shum, A;
Raw, JAL;
Patalay, P;
Creswell, C;
(2021)
How did the mental health symptoms of children and adolescents change over early lockdown during the COVID‐19 pandemic in the UK?
JCPP Advances
, 1
(1)
, Article e12009. 10.1111/jcv2.12009.
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Abstract
Background: The 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. / Methods: UK‐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. / 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. 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. / Conclusions: The 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.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | How did the mental health symptoms of children and adolescents change over early lockdown during the COVID‐19 pandemic in the UK? |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/jcv2.12009 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/jcv2.12009 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2021 The Authors. JCPP Advances published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | adolescent, children, COVID‐19, lockdown, mental health, pandemic, United Kingdom, youth |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine > MRC Unit for Lifelong Hlth and Ageing |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10127288 |
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