Almost half of children studied had their emotional and social development stunted as a result of government measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a “first of its kind” study conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the University College London Institute of Education.
The study – which surveyed more than 6,000 parents from across England – found lockdown measures negatively impacted children from across the socioeconomic spectrum. However, the effects were more pronounced among different age ranges. Parents with children between the ages of four and seven were far more likely to have reported setbacks to their children’s emotional and social development, at 52 percent, compared to the parents of 12 to 15-year-olds, at 42 percent.
Parents reported that their children began experiencing increased levels of depression, anxiety, and lower self-esteem, and even having tantrums more regularly than they did before the pandemic.
One of the study’s authors, Andrew McKendrick, highlighted the likely irreversibility of the impact, stating:
“There’s been some discourse suggesting that children will bounce back and this has not been long-lasting. Wider evidence outside our study has shown that this kind of disruption to children can have long-lasting consequences.”
“As we come out of the shadow of the pandemic, the extent of the crisis in children’s mental health is becoming more and more evident,” added Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England.
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