Children's social distancing from peers predicts more social-emotional problems: The case for fostering social understanding as a protective factor

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

By March 2020, many governments around the world had taken emergency measures such as closing schools/daycares and instituting social distancing. Though few doubted there would be negative consequences, these measures were essential to stop the spread of COVID-19. To identify the social-emotional effects of these measures, we asked parents of 3-12-year-old children (n = 80) to report on their social-emotional health (Perceived Stress Scale; Cohen & Williamson, 1988; UCLA Loneliness Scale, Russell 1996), their child’s social-emotional difficulties, social skills, and ‘theory of mind’ or social understanding (Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire; Goodman, 1997; Social Skills Improvement System, Gresham & Elliott, 2008; Children’s Social Understanding Scale; Tahiroglu et al., 2014, respectively), and number of hours their child spent in in-person versus virtual interactions with children versus adults. Forty families previously visited our laboratory allowing us to control for their child’s pre-pandemic levels. We aimed to 1) identify whether reductions in in-person peer interactions predicted changes in different facets of social-emotional health and 2) assess the role of parental well-being and children’s social understanding.

Children’s Social Skills and Social-Emotional Difficulties: Fortunately, reductions in the amount of in-person interactions with other children were unrelated to any significant change (before vs. during pandemic) in children’s social skills, r = .007, p = .953, ns. However, reductions in children’s in-person social interactions with other children significantly predicted the amount of change in their social-emotional difficulties, r = -.425, p = .006, with the largest effects in conduct problems (r = -.514, p = .001) and emotional symptoms (r = -.488, p = .001). Reductions in the amount of in-person social interactions with adults did not predict children’s difficulties, suggesting that it’s the change in in-person interactions with other children that has the most impact on children’s social-emotional difficulties.

Role of Parental Well-being and Child’s level of Social Understanding: Parental Stress and Loneliness were significant predictors of children’s social-emotional difficulties and social skills controlling for age, gender, and child’s level of in-person peer interaction. However, after controlling for their child’s pre-pandemic levels, parental stress and loneliness failed to account for significant variability (ps > .15), suggesting this relationship is child-driven. That is, the child’s level of social-emotional difficulties may contribute to the parent’s stress, more than vice versa. Moreover, children’s social understanding was a significant negative predictor above-and-beyond these other variables, for social-emotional difficulties, F (1, 31) = 5.22, p = 029, and positive predictor of social skills, F (1, 18) = 11.26, p = .004.

Conclusions: Changes children experienced during the pandemic in in-person interactions with their peers predicted increased social-emotional difficulties and decreased social skills. Children with better social understanding or ‘theory of mind’ exhibited fewer changes in their social skills and social emotional difficulties. These data suggest that interventions aimed at fostering children’s social understanding is a potential avenue to minimize the possible negative effects of reduced social interactions with peers. Such interventions have potential benefits for both the child’s and parent’s social-emotional health. Additional data are being collected to examine changes over time.

Authors

• Susan A J Birch, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Presenting Author

• Charlotte I Stewardson, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Allegra Passacantilli, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Non-Presenting Author