Children’s Well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: Relationships with attitudes, family structure, and mothers’ Well-being

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 triggered social restrictions worldwide including the shutdown of schools. Whereas research has documented the negative effects on parents’ well-being, less is known about children’s well-being during the pandemic. We investigated the well-being, emotions, and COVID-19-related attitudes of 87 Norwegian elementary children (42 boys, 45 girls; M_age = 9.66 years, SD = 1.77) and their mothers (M_age = 39.69 years; SD = 5.79) in June 2020. Children reported reduced well-being relative to European norms. In line with research on child well-being before the pandemic, living in a one-parent home was associated with lower child well-being and more negative emotions during the pandemic, and mother’s well-being was related to child well-being. Concerning attitudes towards COVID-19-related restrictions, we found a positive relationship between child age and attitudes and between children’s attitudes and well-being. Implications for protecting children from negative effects of the ongoing and future pandemics are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• child Well-being
• children’s emotions
• mothers’ well-being

Author note

Sarah E. Martiny, Kjærsti Thorsteinsen, Marte Olsen, and Marie Kvalø, Department of Psychology, Research Group Social Psychology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway. Elizabeth J. Parks-Stamm, Department of Psychology, University of Southern Maine, USA.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sarah E. Martiny, Department of Psychology, Research Group Social Psychology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Department of Psychology, PO Box 6050 Langnes, 9037 Tromsø, Norway, email: [email protected]

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ In addition to the variables reported here, the children’s questionnaire contained: general attitudes towards school, performance at school, gender stereotypes and career aspirations, status of communal and agentic occupations, and demographics.

² 17 participants in our sample were between six and a half and eight years, 59 between eight and 12 years, and 11 children were between 12 and 13 years. We thus decided to use the European norm data for children 8-11. The results of the t-test do not change if we exclude children older than 11 and younger than 8 years old.