Poster #123 - Investigating the Role of Familial Characteristics on Children’s Mental Health Trajectories: An Applied Multi-Level Longitudinal Data Analysis

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Introduction
Previous studies demonstrate heterogeneity in children’s mental health changes because of the COVID-19 pandemic (Saleem et al., 2022). Moreover, studies have shown that children from lower-income backgrounds experienced the pandemic differently than children from better resourced families (Burns et al., 2022). Given the timeline of the pandemic most of what is known is about the immediate effects of the pandemic with little is known about its longer-term effects on children’s mental health.

The present study aims to address this gap in the literature by utilizing multilevel modelling to investigate three research questions:
1. How does mental health differ across children, compared to across time?
2. How were children from low-income families impacted by the pandemic in terms of their mental health?
3. How do familial characteristics (i.e., birth of sibling, income, and education) relate to the changes experienced in children’s mental health?

Methods
273 families completed assessments on familial characteristics, early educational experiences of their children, and children’s mental health at three-time points (prior to COVID-19 (2016 - 2019), the initial onset of COVID-19 (2020 - 2021) and later during the pandemic (2021 - 2022). Families were low-income but somewhat highly educated compared to the general population in Toronto, Canada where the current study took place. Finally, 49% of children had the birth of a sibling prior to COVID-19, 57% during the initial stage of COVID-19 and 62% later into the pandemic. Children’s mental health was measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire with 4 difficulties subscales (emotion, conduct, hyperactivity, and peer) and 1 strength subscale (prosocial; Goodman, 1997).

Results
A variance decomposition analysis was conducted across the five mental health outcomes for children prior to and during the pandemic: 30% - 57% variation is seen across children in this study (i.e., between children’s effects), with a significant amount of variation (43% - 70%) occurring across time (i.e., within children’s effects). Children’s emotional and hyperactivity problems increased as the pandemic progressed while children’s conduct problems decreased (Table 1). Also, children’s prosocial behaviours improved throughout the pandemic. Regarding familial characteristics (income and number of siblings), children from higher income families had less conduct problems (β = -0.50, SE = 0.17, p = 0.004) and peer problems (β = -0.32, SE = 0.16, p = 0.043) prior to COVID-19 than children from lower-income families. With respect to COVID-19 impacts on children’s mental health, children in higher-income families had a greater decrease in their peer problems than children from lower-income families (β = -0.31, SE = 0.14, p = 0.031).

Discussion
Consistent with other findings we found that children’s mental health declined shortly after the onset of the pandemic and continued to do so well into the second year of the pandemic. Interestingly, children’s conduct problems improved, indicating the complexities of children’s mental health experiences during the pandemic. Analyses of the impact of ECEC environments on children’s mental health functioning will help us understand the role of access to education during COVID-19 on children’s well-being, which will provide implications for social policy.

Authors

• Zhangjing Luo, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• Samantha Caitlin Burns, University of Toronto

• Calpanaa Jegatheeswaran, University of Toronto

• Michal Perlman, University of Toronto