Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Have Immediate Impacts on the Socio-Emotional and Digital Skills of Japanese Children

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p><jats:bold><jats:italic>Background: </jats:italic></jats:bold>A novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has spread widely throughout the world. To reduce the spread of infection, children are prevented from going to school and have fewer opportunities for in-person communication. Although the pandemic has impacted the everyday lives of children, its impact on their development is unknown. This cross-sectional study compared Japanese children’s socio-emotional behaviors and skills for operating digital devices before and during the pandemic.<jats:bold><jats:italic>Methods:</jats:italic></jats:bold> Parents completed a web-based questionnaire before and during the pandemic for children ages 0-9. Children’s socio-emotional development in an everyday context was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Children’s basic touch interaction skills to operate digital devices and skills to use functions of digital devices were also measured.<jats:bold><jats:italic>Results:</jats:italic></jats:bold> The results indicated that during the pandemic, children were more prosocial, experienced more problems in their peer relationships, and had better digital skills, but no differences were found in emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity between before and during the pandemic. The differences in digital skills was explained by the duration of children’s media use.<jats:bold><jats:italic>Conclusions:</jats:italic></jats:bold> Overall, our results suggest the pandemic may have immediate impact on children’s socio-emotional behaviors and digital skills. <jats:bold><jats:italic>Trial registration: </jats:italic></jats:bold>We pre-registered our hypotheses, method, primary analyses, and sample size (https://osf.io/c7p6b)</jats:p>

Israel-Arab Muslim children’s socioemotional functioning at kindergarten and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Relations with cognitive and socioemotional abilities, gender, and socioeconomic status.

“…Most of these studies did not assess the SEF before the pandemic, thus preventing the ability to calculate the change in emotional problems. Those who did, for example, Moriguchi et al (2020), indeed confirmed that the pandemic imposed an immediate increase in child socioemotional difficulties.…”