The Role of Online Schooling, Screen-Based Activities, and Parent Coping in Canadian Children’s COVID-19-Related Trauma and Anxiety Symptoms

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of online schooling and screen-based activities on Canadian children’s COVID-19-related trauma and generalized anxiety symptoms and how parents’ coping strategies influenced these associations. The participants were 121 Canadian children aged from 7 to 12. Parents were asked to report on their children’s school attendance, screen-based activities, and trauma and generalized anxiety symptoms, as well as their own coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online schooling was associated with less trauma and generalized anxiety symptoms in children than school non-attendance. Screen-based activities were not directly associated with children’s trauma and anxiety symptoms, but the way parents coped with pandemic stressors moderated these associations. Parents’ active and adaptive coping strategies mitigated the effects of school non-attendance and increased screen-based activity use on children’s COVID-19-related symptoms. The findings not only highlight the detrimental effects of complete school closures, but they also underscore the importance of better equipping parents to cope with pandemic stressors. The findings also suggest that virtual school attendance might have similar benefits to in-person attendance, as it appears to protect against adverse mental health outcomes.

The effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on French‐Canadian adolescents' academic motivation: A follow‐up study

“…In sum, the results of this follow‐up study seem to be less situational and may reflect potential chronic effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on adolescents' academic motivation. The findings are in line with several recent studies indicating that youth experienced a decrease in motivation toward schoolwork 10,11 as well as high levels of distress during the COVID‐19 pandemic 12‐18 . Consequently, it is likely that they had difficulties engaging in activities that, in normal circumstances, were salient to them.…”

“…The findings are in line with several recent studies indicating that youth experienced a decrease in motivation toward schoolwork 10,11 as as high levels of distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Consequently, it is likely that they had difficulties engaging in activities that, in normal circumstances, were salient to them. It remains to be seen if these negative effects on adolescents' motivational resources will persist in time.…”

New Evidence of Changes in Students’ Achievement Motivation in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…It is di cult to determine whether these changes are due to the pandemic, especially since motivation tends to decline as students progress through grades (Fredricks & Eccles, 2002;Jacobs et al, 2002;Paulick et al, 2013;Watt, 2004). However, as we already pointed out, several recent studies revealed that students' mental health has been negatively impacted by this pandemic (Guimond et al, 2021;Lane et al, 2021;Rogers et al, 2021;Rothe et al, 2021;Tang et al, 2021;Tardif-Grenier et al, 2021;Vaillancourt et al, 2021) and these ndings leave to think that their motivational resources were also negatively impacted.…”

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on School-Aged Children with Fragile X Syndrome

“…Based on these results, the perceived benefit of keeping school-aged children with FXS in their daily routines and remaining in person for school and related services is clear. While online learning has been found to have similar academic effects to in-person learning for neurotypical children [ 10 ], this did not seem to be the case for children with FXS based on their parent’s reports. While results from this survey were able to provide a general understanding of the trends based on the impact of the pandemic on this population, this is hopefully only the beginning for studies on the pandemic impact for this and similar populations and limitations to these results provide clear opportunities for further exploration.…”