Mental Health Monday: Children And Youth

Recent research shows a large majority of children and youth experienced harm to their mental health during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Greater stress from social isolation, including both the cancellation of important events and the loss of in-person social interactions, was strongly associated with mental health deterioration.

The research team surveyed more than 1,000 parents of children and youth aged two to 18 years old, and nearly 350 youth between 10 and 18 years old, from April to June of 2020. Across six domains of mental health – depression, anxiety, irritability, attention span, hyperactivity, and obsessions/compulsions – 70.2 per cent of school-aged children (six to 18 years old) and 66.1 per cent of preschool-aged children (two to five years old) reported deterioration in at least one domain. 

The study found children and youth experienced relatively similar overall mental health impacts no matter their clinical history. The researchers say this could be due to several factors, including closure of school-based services combined with greater online learning challenges, reduction of home care services and disruptions to daily routines.

One concerning finding for the study team was the significant proportion of otherwise healthy school-aged children who experienced deterioration in a number of mental health domains, including depression (37.6 per cent), anxiety (38.7 per cent), irritability (40.5 per cent) and attention span (40.8 per cent).

The researchers argue that the strong association of stress from social isolation with mental health deterioration points to the importance of in-person school, recreation, social activities and milestone events.

“Keeping schools open safely and maintaining or adapting activities so they can continue to be offered will go a long way to protecting and addressing children’s mental health and well-being,” 

“Encouraging group work at school, whether in-person or online; running extracurricular activities adhering to local public health guidelines; and ensuring ongoing communication between home and school are all tangible ways we can support children and youth during this incredibly challenging time.”

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This post was written by Blackburn Media