Poster #115 - Children psychosocial adaptation during COVID-19 pandemic confinement: A longitudinal perspective

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. Governments reacted and decided to enforce lockdowns. As a result everybody, except essential workers, was grounded at home to work, as were children because of schools closures, for 2 months and more, depending on the country and region. Soon after the end of the first lockdown, studies began documenting the impacts of the pandemic on children’s adaptation but to our knowledge, few of them have been documentated children adaptation over the time.

The main study’s objective was to present a portrait of children psychosocial adaptation during two different period of containment (May 2020, January 2021) and examine whether a difference was present between the two measurement times.

Recruitment took place in Quebec, Canada in May 2020 and January 2021. 237 parents completed an online questionnaire on Survey Monkey, reporting data on psychosocial adaptation of their child aged 6 to 17 years old. The children’s mean age was 10,15 years old (ET = 3,2) in May 2020.

Measures used in the project were a general survey regarding sociodemographic information and lock down experience. The Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment – Children Behavior Checklist was used to assess children psychosocial adaptation and mental health (including internalized and externalized behaviors).

Statistical analyses reveal that the majority of children did not present difficulties in terms of overall adaptation in the context of the pandemic at both times of measurement. In may 2020, 65.8% of children were adapting well to the pandemic situation and in January 2021, they were 66.5% to adjust well to the situation. During both lockdowns, almost one third of children presented externalized and internalized difficulties. No difference was found between time of measurement for the different subscale (eg. anxiety, depression, aggressive behaviors) evoking a stability regarding children adaptation over the time. However, one category of children stood out in the sample. Results show that children who had mental health vulnerabilities prior to the pandemic (e.g. ADHD, behavioural problems, anxiety) present more difficulties in overall coping during the pandemic than other youth. In fact, at both measurement times, this group of children had significantly more general adjustment difficulties (p=.042), and marginally more breaking behaviors (p=.062) and social problems (p=.079) than other children in the sample. As those results remain stable highlighting the needs of some children more than others to receive help in this particular context.

While the results are consistent with other studies and reveal that most youth can cope adequately, they also underline that some children are experiencing difficulties that need to be addressed.

Authors

• Claire Baudry, Université du Québec Á  Trois Rivières
  Presenting Author

• Jessica Pearson, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR)

• Line Massé

• Geneviève Ouellet

• Sophie Rivet