Poster #136 - Effects of the Pandemic on the Development of Adaptive Behavior in Children and Adolescents

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Adaptive behavior is one of the domains of child development that represents the children's functionality based on conceptual, social, and practical skills. It is closely related to the child's level of autonomy and tends to be altered in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (Schalock et al., 2010). The development of these skills is directly influenced by the experiences to which children are exposed throughout their development (Mecca et al., 2015). During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, children's exposure to different experiences essential to child development was very limited due to social isolation, however, the impact of this is still uncertain (Araújo et al., 2021). In Brazil, only a few instruments are available to measure the construct of adaptive behavior (Ferreira & Van Munster, 2015). Among them, the adapted version of the North American tool Diagnostic Adaptive Behavior Scale (DABS, Tassé et al., 2018) and the Brazilian Adaptive Functioning Scale (EFA, Escala de Funcionamento Adaptativo, Selau et al., 2020) are a reference for the assessment of children and adolescents. Both instruments present strong evidence of validity for use with clinical and non-clinical groups and have similar structures for measuring the same construct, as confirmed by convergent validity (Schütz, 2022). From a sample of children and adolescents assessed with EFA before the COVID-19 pandemic and another sample assessed with DABS during and after the pandemic, a comparative study will be conducted with the aim of investigating the possible effects of social isolation on the developmental pattern of adaptive behavior in children and adolescents with and without neurodevelopmental disorders. Data collection is now complete and analysis will take place in the next stage of the study. The general sample comprises 882 parents or guardians of children aged between 7 and 15 years. 543 (61.6%) had their adaptive behavior assessed during 2019 through EFA and 339 (38.4%) between 2020 and 2022 through DABS. From this sample, the participants were also divided into two groups: clinical (composed of those with previous diagnoses of neurodevelopmental disorders), and non-clinical (composed of those without a previous diagnosis). This and other information about the sample are presented in Table 1. In order to compare the data from the two subsamples, the scores from both instruments were standardized. Next, a T-test will be conducted to analyze the difference between the mean scores of both subsamples. In addition, distribution analysis will also be conducted to allow for a better and visual understanding of the possible differences between the developmental patterns of adaptive behavior before and after the pandemic in children and adolescents. From this, a significant difference between the two groups is expected, since the literature points out that adaptive behavior is directly influenced by context and environment, which, in turn, underwent changes during the pandemic.

Authors

• Adriana Schütz, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
  Presenting Author

• Thais Selau, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)

• SILVIA CRISTINA MARCELIANO HALLBERG

• Euclides Jose de Mendonça Filho, McGill University

• Carlos Eduardo Xavier

• César Augusto Marques dos Santos

• Denise R Bandeira, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)