Despite fears that pandemic anxiety will harm children’s development, new research shows that young children have had less emotional and behavioral problems, especially in families with lower mother education, implying hidden resilience factors.
Study: Exposure to COVID-19 pandemic and young child’s behavior in the ECHO program. Credit Picture: Sharmka/Shutterstock.com
A new study published in Open the Jama Network It states that exposure to the Crown Disease 2019 (Covid-19) The pandemic has been associated with less, not larger, emotional and behavioral problems in infants, rather than significant their behavioral health.
Background
The Covid-19 pandemic has burdened the health and economic systems between countries and has greatly influenced family and social dynamics. Both family and social environments play an important role in shaping a child’s health and well -being, as childhood is a period of increased brain plasticity and sensitivity to environmental influences. This is a concern for possible behavior changes to children after the exposure of the pandemic.
Existing elements have linked the Covid-19 pandemic to increased psychological discomfort in younger and older adults. However, studies investigating the impact of pandemic on childhood behavior changes have caused mixed results. Some studies have reported higher problem -solving skills and subtle motor skills and lower personal social skills in children with pandemic. On the contrary, some did not mention a significant impact of the pandemic on internalization problems and external children.
Given these deviations in the findings, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on internalization and external problems on infants. Internalization problems and external reactions are emotional (anxiety, depression and withdrawal) and behavioral problems (aggression, hyperactivity and rule) that can significantly affect a person’s mental health and social function.
Design planning
The study analyzed data from environmental influences on the children’s health program (ECHO), which recruits children from multiple US and Puerto Rico with a variety of geographical and socio -dimensional backgrounds.
This study included 3438 toddlers, which were divided into three groups: the prophetic team, the team evaluated by a pandemic and the group born in the pandemic. The preparation of the children was born and evaluated before the pandemic. The group team team was born before the pandemic, but was evaluated during the pandemic. And the group born in Pandemic were born and evaluated during the pandemic.
A widely certified care reference tool was used to evaluate infant and behavioral problems in infants, assuming that pandemic -related stressors, such as family disorder, social isolation and increased family stress, will contribute to increased and high -behavioral problems.
Basic findings
The analysis of the study revealed that young children born before the pandemic but were evaluated during the pandemic or tosses born and evaluated during the pandemic, had lower levels of emotional and behavioral problems by their peer -born peers.
These differences were more intense among mothers with less than a degree than the children of mothers with higher educational achievements. The authors stressed that the protective model was only important between the lower education group, rather than proven that these toddlers overall had less problems than those of the most educated mothers.
Importance
This study is one of the first to explore these associations in various US and Puerto Rico between three groups of young children who differ in the pandemic report.
A growing group of evidence suggests that the impact of the pandemic on children’s mental health depends on family characteristics, such as socio -economic status and parental care practices. Consistent family routines within households, such as normal play people and family meals, have been found to reduce depressed symptoms in preschool children during the pandemic.
Although pre-existing studies have linked the poor socio-economic situation with higher emotional and behavioral difficulties in young adults, studies conducted during the pandemic have reported greater emotional discomfort and discontent for life in families with higher-economic families.
These observations and current findings of the study indicate that the stress -related stressors do not necessarily contribute to the most adverse nervous in children.
Specifically, the study notes that the correlations between the exhibition pandemic and less emotional and behavioral problems were important only in the infants of mothers with a lower educational background. The researchers performed carefully, indicating a possible explanation that families with a lower educational achievement may have experienced fewer lifestyle disorders during the pandemic, which could provide a relatively more stable care environment.
However, a previous study conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic reported that mothers with a college or 4-year degree had higher psychological discomfort than those with the least and highest educational achievement. This emphasizes the complexity of the correlation between education and pandemic stress and the possible contributions of other factors to these results.
The findings of the study are based on the behavior of the behavior of children mentioned by the carer, who can introduce critical errors due to parental mental health, prejudice and expectations. The pandemic may have further influenced these perceptions, possibly leading parents to see behaviors less in terms of wider stress factors.
The study included toddlers between 18 and 39 months. This narrow age range can limit the generality of findings to older children, who may have faced more severe behavioral problems due to the disorder associated with pandemic in peer interactions, school studies and other social activities.
The study does not analyze parental mental health or specific pandemic stressors, such as health concerns, economic crisis, social isolation or disturbed routines. These factors can potentially affect the effects of behavior in children.
Despite these limitations, the findings of the study have a significant impact on public health, stressing the need to identify protective factors that can eliminate the impact of pandemic on children’s behavior.
