Impact of covid on children's mental health

Wealthier children experienced the steepest fall in mental health during the Covid pandemic, with parents working from home and juggling childcare possibly having an effect, researchers say.

Those youngsters whose parents were employed, stayed together and were highly educated appear to have suffered sharper falls in mental health than those who were less well off.

The research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that the gap between the mental health of poorer and wealthier children narrowed during the pandemic.

Experts gave possible reasons for the findings, including parents trying to juggle paid work with looking after children and educating them while schools were closed down due to coronavirus.

"This strain, which has been linked to parent distress levels, may plausibly have been greatest for families with employed parents who needed to balance childcare against their paid work," they said.

"Moreover, the intense pressures and increased risk of Covid infection faced by essential (key) workers in this period may have placed further strain on some families with employed parents.

"For example, studies in Brazil and Bangladesh have shown that children whose parents worked in essential roles, and were unable to work from home, experienced worse mental health during the pandemic.

"We speculate that these excess pressures faced by some working parents, who were required to balance childcare and paid work during the pandemic, may have contributed to the poorer mental health of children with employed parents during the pandemic compared with before."

The study looked at data for 9,272 children as part of the UK Household Longitudinal Study.

The mental health of youngsters was reported by parents using a standardised questionnaire when the children were aged five to eight between 2011 and 2019.

Details of mental health was also recorded when they were aged five to 11 in July 2020, September 2020 and March 2021 - all during the pandemic.

The results showed that wealthier children experienced steeper declines in their mental health during the pandemic than more disadvantaged children, who tended to have lower mental health to begin with.

For example, the average difference in child scores between those whose parents were unemployed compared with those whose parents were employed was 2.35 points before the pandemic but fell to 0.02 points during the pandemic - this means the inequalities narrowed.

The authors, including from the University of Glasgow, said there were limitations to their research, but added: "Our study provides evidence that trends in child mental health have continued to worsen during the pandemic. "

Carlisle and Eden Mind, a mental health charity, believe there is still a hangover from the pandemic though, as they see more and more kids for mental health related issues.

Becky Crawley is from the charity, she said: "Whether that's due to the pandemic directly, or because awareness is better, people are now more open to coming forward for support and seeking that help that they might need.

"Especially if it's coming on after kids might not relate any issues to the pandemic or the affect that it might of had, but I think schools would probably agree that it's impacted children and young people and how they feel.

"There has been a rise in the need for services like us and other similar is supporting people in the aftermath and longer term as well."