Differences in Psychological and Behavioral Changes between Children following School Closure due to COVID-19

Abstract

School closure due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pushed children across ages and nationalities into a state of mental health crisis. In Japan, children between the ages of 6 and 18 were ordered to stay at home and observe social distancing for several months. This study is aimed at investigating the effects of quarantine due to COVID-19 on children belonging to different developmental stages in life. Data were collected from mothers of typically developing children aged between 6 and 18 years. The differences in psychological and behavioral changes following school closure during the COVID-19 pandemic were explored. A total of 535 children, including 145 students in lower grades of elementary school (6–9 years), 124 students in higher grades of elementary school (9–12 years), 132 students in junior high school (12–15 years), and 134 students in high school (15–18 years), were recruited. Children in lower grades of elementary school (lower grades group) gained significantly lower understanding about COVID-19 and the necessity of COVID-19 restrictions than children in the other groups. Moreover, they had more psychological problems: they easily cried and complained, were unable to keep calm, and were dependent on parents and family members. Changes in sleep patterns were more prevalent in junior and senior high school students. We concluded that mental health care should be provided based on the growth period of each child not only during school closure but also after school reopening.

Prevalence of mental health symptoms in children and adolescents during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A meta‐analysis

“…After deduplication, we assessed 24,926 abstracts for eligibility (see Figure 1). After the screening process, 191 studies were included in the systematic review 50,51,56–244 with a total...…”

Lessons from the health policies for children during the pandemic in Japan

“…Ueda et al reported about half of children, participated in the research, experienced sleep pattern change during the period and its change was predicted by a high level of depression (11). In Nakachi et al study, change tendency in sleep pattern was also observed in junior and high school students (12). Psychological problems were observed in lower grade of elementary school; they easily cried and complained, were unable to keep calm, and were dependent on parents and family members.…”

Impactos desenvolvimentais de saúde mental e aprendizagem em crianças, adolescentes, pais e professores pós-fechamento das escolas: uma revisão sistemática

“…Desfechos secundários de saúdeO aumento do uso de telas foi igualmente preocupante[27, 32, 42, 55, 56, 62,63,[71][72][73][74][75], em alguns casos podendo se relacionar a um aumento de agressividade [62, 71], problemas de conduta [26, 28, 30, 32] e problemas psicológicos[76].Em um estudo com 514 crianças, o tempo de videogame correlacionou-se significativamente com maiores sintomas de desatenção, hiperatividade, problemas emocionais e de conduta[27]. Ademais, foram frequentes alterações de sono[36,38,48, 55,60, 62,65,66,[77][78][79][80][81], dos hábitos alimentares [55,78,79], aumento de peso[82,83] e diminuição de atividade física[42, 55, 62,65,73,79,84].…”