Interviewing children: the impact of the COVID-19 quarantine on children’s changes in routine and psychological distress. 

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in governments implementing disease containment measures such as school closures, social distancing, and home quarantine.To date, only a few studies have drawn attention to the psychological impact of lockdown on Italian children’s mental health. The present study aimed to investigate the psychological distress (anxiety and mood symptoms) and changes in routine among Italian primary and middle school students during the COVID-19 quarantine.Methods: This qualitative interview study was performed between the 18th of May and 7th of June 2020: it involved a sample of 82 children and adolescents living in Milan (Italy), attending primary and middle school (aged 6 to 14 years), and their parents.Results: Almost 30% of the subjects reported having struggled to adjust to home learning. 36 responders completely changed their dietary habits during the lockdown: they were not eating the same amount of food and were consuming more junk food. Sleep habits were also affected by the lockdown measures: 28% of the sample had difficulties sleeping and wished to sleep in their parents’ bed. Concerning psychological distress, 64 (78%) children and adolescents had anxiety symptoms; 43.9% of the students reported significant mood symptoms.Conclusions: Children are not indifferent to the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 epidemic: our data confirm their difficulties in adapting to the quarantine measures. The effects of stress exposure may not manifest later on during the children’s development, and, for this reason, it would be interesting to follow up on these participants to improve our understanding of how long these outcomes may last.

Impacts of school closures on physical and mental health of children and young people: a systematic review

“…Of the 72 studies, 24(33%) were cohort studies, 23 of which used an external historical/retrospective comparison group 22-44 and 1 a parallel comparison group; 45 33 (46%) were cross-sectional studies; 46-78 14(19%) were uncontrolled pre-post studies, 11 of which included one measurement pre- and post-exposure 79-90 and 3 included repeated measures; 91-93 and 1(1%) was a modelling study. 94…”

“…Forty five studies (63%) were high-quality (eTables 3 to 7); 23 cohort studies, 22-44 17 cross-sectional, 46,48,52,54,56,59,61,62,64,65,67,71-74,76,78 4 pre-post, 82,83,91-93 and 1 modelling study. 94 Eighteen (25%) were medium-quality; 13 cross sectional, 49-51,53,55,57,58,60,66,68,70,75,77 and 5 pre-post studies.…”

“…Eight were from China, 45,50,68,70,72-74,77 7 from other low and middle-income countries (LMIC; Turkey, 58,79 Pakistan, 25 India, 28,65 Brazil, 55 Bangladesh 76 ) and 13 from Italy, 23,26,27,32,35,38,49,56,78,81,84-86 21 from the UK, 22,29-31,37,39-42,44,47,48,54,60,62-64,69,87,89,90 12 from the USA, 24,43,46,51,57,59,66,67,71,75,92,94 and 1 study each from Ireland, 88 France, 91 Germany, 93 Greece, 80 Spain, 61 Finland, 34 Slovenia, 33 Israel, 82,83 Australia, 52 Canada 53 and Japan. 36…”

COVID-19 Life Events Spill-Over on Family Functioning and Adolescent Adjustment

“…As one key example of a broad pandemic stressor, families around the world report being affected by quarantine and mandatory social distancing (Brooks et al, 2020). These quarantine practices result in challenges to work-family balance through less support for parents from employers and spouses Craig & Churchill, 2020), unemployment (Brown et al, 2020), online schooling demands (Segre et al, 2020), and increased caregiver burden (Russell et al, 2020;Patrick et al, 2020). Although quarantine may entail spending more time at home with family, Ammar et al (2020) found that family members in Asia, Africa, and Europe reported feeling more socially isolated as a result of fewer opportunities to visit with family outside of the home as well as friends and neighbors during quarantine.…”

“…Although some of these changes result in stressors that challenge family functioning (Chung, Chan et al, 2020;Fontanesi et al, 2020) others may offer opportunities to preserve or even bolster family functioning in the face of the pandemic (Orgilés et al, 2020). Emerging research from around the world documents the impact of the COVID-19 and previous epidemics/pandemics on families in terms of economic and resource loss, work-related stress, isolation and separation, illness and exposure concerns, caregiving burdens, and schooling needs for children (Ammar et al, 2020;Brooks et al, 2020;Brown et al,, 2020;Craig & Churchill, 2020;Del Boca et al, 2020;Garcia de Avila et al, 2020;Hawryluck et al, 2004;Orgilés et al, 2020;Saurabh & Ranjan, 2020;Segre et al, 2020). Evidence that these stressors impact the mental and physical health of both parents and children is growing (Brown et al, 2020;DelBoca;Origlés et al, 2020;Patrick et al, 2020;Saurabh;Segre et al, 2020;Xie et al, 2020).…”