On return to school: disorder symptoms, stress at home and evaluations of school COVID-19 measures

Abstract

Background: Social restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the mental health of children. Yet, analyses on the mental health of younger children in the later course of the pandemic are scarce. The present study assessed 8- to 11-year-olds’ internalising disorder symptoms during the last three weeks, from the third week of February through to the first week of March, of the 2021 national lockdown.

Method: One hundred and forty-five pupils, including a subset of keyworkers’ children who had face-toface schooling, completed the validated Revised Child Anxiety and Depression scales, items on COVID-related stress at home, and evaluations of home-learning and school’s measures for reopening.

Results: Symptoms increased with age in months and/or number of siblings. Girls reported more symptoms and home stress than boys did. Pupils who had face-to-face schooling were more satisfied with school measures and less satisfied with home learning compared with those who only had home learning. Hierarchical regression analyses corroborated the contributions of sociodemographic characteristics and found that home stress and school measures evaluations were associated most with major depression, generalised anxiety, and social phobia.

Conclusion: Findings can contribute to mental health practice by promoting school communications and family and educator awareness of stressors, vulnerabilities and symptoms to boost pupils’ readiness for school returns.

Keywords:

• mental health
• Revised Child Anxiety and Depression scales
• RCAD
• school closure