Children's and Adolescents' Psychological Adjustment and Autobiographical Memories During the COVID-19 Lockdown Period in Denmark

• In Event: Different Ages, Different Challenges: COVID-19-Related Distress and Coping

Abstract

Introduction and Hypotheses. Many countries have adopted policies to reduce contact among people, including school closures in order to contain the spread of Covid-19. In Denmark, starting from March 13 2020, the government mandated the closure of schools, restaurants, and stores, resulting in drastic changes in children’s life from one day to the other. Children and adolescents returned to school about two months later. Our study examined children’s and adolescents’ autobiographical memories for the lock-down period and their psychological adjustment. Autobiographical memory captures self-defining aspects of children’s and adults’ lives (Berntsen, 2009; Nelson, 1993) and supports emotion regulation (e.g., Banks & Salmon, 2013). Therefore, autobiographical memories likely capture children’s and adolescents’ experiences of and responses to Covid-19. We were specifically interested in whether participants would reminisce about their social life and isolation during the lockdown period, and whether there was an association between memory content, subjective memory characteristics and the level of well-being and mood/feelings. We expected memory for stressful events to be associated with lower levels of well-being and worse depressive symptoms, especially in adolescents.
Sample and Methods. We assessed 75 9-year-olds, 75 12-year-olds, and 92 15-year-olds memories for the lockdown periods through written prompts included in a booklet distributed during classroom time a few weeks after they returned to school. Participants also self-reported their stress and well-being during the lock-down period and during the last two-weeks using validated measures.
Results. As predicted, we found that girls exhibited overall lower well-being levels based on the World Health Organization - Five Well-being Index, F(1,200)=9.36, p =.003; moreover, we found worse depressive symptoms in adolescent girls as indicated by significant age by gender interactions on scores based on the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire F(1,200)=4.97, p =.008 (Fig. 1). Interestingly, lower well-being during the lockdown was correlated with memories reported as more negative, r(204) = -.26, p < .01, and more stressful r(204) = -.25, p < .01; depressive symptoms were similarly associated with these memory assessments. In contrast, lower level of well-being at present was correlated with memory being reported as less detailed r(204) = .19, p < .01, consistent with the connection between autobiographical memory content and psychological adjustment, but the level of experienced episodicity depended on their current adjustment. Moreover, we found that across all ages, participants reported memories concerning the current or previous social life (21%, e.g., spending time with family; missing friends, family, loneliness, cancelled events), but only older children and adolescents reminisced about the moment in which they first learned about the lockdown as indicated (percentage of narratives including the lockdown announcement in 9-year-olds (0%), 12 year-olds (14%) and 15-year-olds (12%); Χ2 (2, N = 487) = 11.9, p < .01), suggesting that teenagers had an immediate appreciation of the significance of the lockdown. Additional analyses will examine whether certain themes are more strongly associated with subjective assessments of memory quality and improvements in psychological adjustment from the lockdown to reopening in order to deepen our understanding of the connection between autobiographical memory and well-being.

Authors

• Tirill Fjellhaugen Hjuler, Center On Autobiographical Memory Research, Aarhus, Denmark
  Presenting Author

• Simona Ghetti, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author