How have children been impacted due to COVID-19?

Since March 2020, when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), billions of lives have been impacted. However, one group that I think have been most affected by this dynamic situation: children. My previous article spoke about working as a Teaching Assistant during the pandemic, but this time I am focusing on the children I interacted with, by discussing how their education, wellbeing, mental and physical health have all been impacted.

Almost every school was forced to shut down at the beginning of lockdown, leaving many children at home to learn via online platforms. Some benefits of this included a more comfortable learning environment, ease of access to technology and lesser need for commuting. However, the drawbacks were that many children lacked digital access, struggled with focusing at home, or didn’t have a quiet space to work. From my work last year, I saw that in some schools, most students were academically behind when they came back into the classroom, suggesting that online learning was evidently challenging for them. Therefore, low motivation and lack of interpersonal interaction were detrimental barriers for these children. These problems may indicate that children from poorer backgrounds were more likely to encounter these difficulties than children from wealthier backgrounds, making inequality an ongoing issue.

According to a 2021 systematic review, mental health among children worsened because of the COVID-19 pandemic control measures. On the other hand, external measures such as positive family relationships and social support were linked to better mental health outcomes (Samji, H. et al., 2021). Does this mean that perhaps these latter relationships had greater value in improving children’s mental health? On my return to re-opened schools during my gap year, observing children playing together, conversing with each other during break times and engaging with teachers during classes after a long time of being physically apart seemed optimistic. Having spoken to several children about being forced to stay at home, most of them didn’t enjoy it. This highlighted how vital being with other people is to a child’s mental health and wellbeing.

As a result of spending more time at home,

levels of physical activity in children have decreased - even though this was a problem before the pandemic. For example, a 2020 research article with a sample size of 600 adolescent Palestinians stated that 45% of them reported no physical activity during their lockdown (Allabadi, H. et al., 2020); this study, among others, opened my eyes to the fact that this pandemic not only has had a harmful effect on children’s mental health and education but also on their physical health. Therefore, schools have an opportunity and a responsibility to increase the amount of physical activity during lessons to counteract sedentary habits developed during the past two years and tackle the worsening public health challenge that is childhood obesity. One could argue that the effects of physical activity on children’s wellbeing and mental health are beneficial, so perhaps these factors are more related than we think.

With all these significant points illustrated throughout this article, it’s now more important than ever for us to continue supporting children and improve this support. Childhood and adolescence are crucial for growth, maturity, and development. Whilst the pandemic may have hindered that to an extent, I hope that children today will gain the resilience to overcome the impact of COVID-19 and future challenges that this next generation will encounter.

References

1.                   Samji H, Wu J, Ladak A, Vossen C, Stewart E, Dove N, Long D, Snell G. Review: Mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and youth - a systematic review. Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2021 Aug 28:10.1111/ camh.12501. doi: 10.1111/camh.12501. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34455683; PMCID: PMC8653204.

2.                   Allabadi, H. et al. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on dietary and lifestyle behaviours among adolescents in Palestine. DHH, 7(2):https://journalofhealth. co.nz/?page_id=2170