Table 1.
Descriptive sample characteristics for separate age-groups (N = 5823)
| Age group | 1–6 years N = 2726 |
7–10 years N = 1854 |
11–19 years N = 1243 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age groups, No. (%) | 1y: 133 (4.9) | 7y: 427 (23.0) | 11y: 164 (13.2) |
| 2y: 310 (11.4) | 8y: 528 (28.5) | 12y: 152 (12.2) | |
| 3y: 600 (22.0) | 9y: 492 (26.5) | 13y: 162 (13.0) | |
| 4y: 763 (28.0) | 10y: 407 (22.0) | 14y: 177 (14.2) | |
| 5y: 569 (20.9) | 15y: 165 (13.3) | ||
| 6y: 351 (12.9) | 16y: 200 (16.1) | ||
| 17y: 111 (8.9) | |||
| 18y: 78 (6.3)19y: 34 (2.7) | |||
| Country, No. (%) | |||
| Switzerland/Liechtenstein | 1064 (39.0) | 790 (42.6) | 619 (49.8) |
| Germany | 1075 (39.4) | 447 (24.1) | 295 (23.7) |
| Austria | 580 (21.3) | 617 (33.3) | 329 (26.5) |
| Other | 7 (0.3) | ·· | ·· |
| Child gender, No. (%) | |||
| Female | 1355 (49.7) | 878 (47.4) | 802 (64.5) |
| Male | 1371 (50.3) | 975 (52.6) | 434 (34.9) |
| Diversea | ·· | 1 (0.1) | 7 (0.6) |
| Pre-COVID education, No. (%) | |||
| Attending daycare | 1143 (41.9) | ·· | ·· |
| Attending kindergarden | 1528 (56.1) | ·· | ·· |
| Attending school | ·· | ·· | 1146 (92.2) |
| Apprenticeship | ·· | ·· | 82 (6.6) |
| Dropped school/apprenticeship | ·· | ·· | 15 (1.2) |
| Living with both parents, No. (%) | 2552 (93.6) | 1650 (89.0) | 1000 (80.5) |
| Maternal education, No. (%) | |||
| Mandatory school not completed | 2 (0.1) | 2 (0.1) | ·· |
| Completed mandatory school | 18 (0.7) | 13 (0.7) | ·· |
| Completed apprenticeship (1–2 years) | 39 (1.4) | 37 (2.0) | ·· |
| Completed apprenticeship (3–4 years) | 480 (17.6) | 441 (23.8) | ·· |
| A-level equivalent or college of higher education | 835 (30.6) | 617 (33.3) | ·· |
| University | 1352 (49.6) | 743 (40.1) | ·· |
| Not applicable | 0 (0.0) | 1 (0.1) | ·· |
| Paternal education, No. (%) | |||
| Mandatory school not completed | 7 (0.3) | 4 (0.2) | ·· |
| Completed mandatory school | 36 (1.3) | 29 (1.6) | ·· |
| Completed apprenticeship (1–2 years) | 41 (1.5) | 37 (2.0) | ·· |
| Completed apprenticeship (3–4 years) | 632 (23.2) | 531 (28.6) | ·· |
| A-level equivalent or college of higher education | 835 (30.6) | 592 (31.9) | ·· |
| University | 1175 (43.1) | 653 (35.2) | ·· |
| Not applicable | 0 (0.0) | 8 (0.4) | ·· |
| Parental mental health | |||
| Depressiveness, PHQ-9, mean (SD) | 5.12 (4.09) | 4.44 (3.74) | ·· |
| Anxiety, GAD-7, mean (SD) | 4.41 (3.68) | 3.96 (3.41) | ·· |
| Parental worries about COVID-19, No. (%) | |||
| Not at all worried | ·· | ·· | 233 (18.7) |
| Little worried | ·· | ·· | 803 (64.6) |
| Very worried | ·· | ·· | 205 (16.5) |
| Not applicable | ·· | ·· | 2 (0.2) |
| Pre-COVID psychological treatment, No. (%) | 24 (0.9) | 95 (5.1) | 120 (9.7) |
| Missing | ·· | ·· | 3 (0.2) |
| Pre-existing child chronic physical disease, No. (%) | 88 (3.2) | 110 (5.9) | 97 (7.8) |
| Number of pre-COVID significant life events, LES | |||
| Mean (SD) | 0.77 (1.03) | 0.66 (1.04) | 0.93 (1.18) |
| None | 1413 (51.8) | 1094 (59.0) | 592 (47.6) |
| One | 775 (28.4) | 470 (25.4) | 359 (28.9) |
| Two | 374 (13.7) | 178 (9.6) | 159 (12.8) |
| ≥3 | 164 (6.1) | 112 (6.0) | 132 (10.7) |
| Missing | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 1 (0.1) |
| Exposure to COVID-19, mean (SD) | 0.65 (0.61) | 1.08 (0.49) | 1.24 (0.62) |
| Appraisal | |||
| Understand yes, No. (%) | 1392 (51.1) | 1779 (96.0) | 1159 (93.2) |
| Negative consequences, Cronbach’s alpha, No. (%) | α = 0.72 | α = 0.64 | α = 0.63 |
| Summary score: 0 | 1699 (62.3) | 1054 (56.9) | 467 (37.6) |
| Summary score: 1 | 550 (20.2) | 486 (26.2) | 336 (27.0) |
| Summary score: 2 | 230 (8.4) | 174 (9.4) | 246 (19.8) |
| Summary score: 3 | 247 (9.1) | 140 (7.6) | 194 (15.6) |
| Internal Control, No. (%) | |||
| Not at all control | ·· | ·· | 94 (7.6) |
| Little control | ·· | ·· | 641 (51.6) |
| Very much control | ·· | ·· | 508 (40.9) |
| Coping self-efficacy, No. (%) | |||
| Not at all confident | ·· | ·· | 34 (2.7) |
| Little confident | ·· | ·· | 406 (32.7) |
| Very confident | ·· | ·· | 803 (64.6) |
| Emotionally overwhelmed, No. (%) | |||
| Not at all | ·· | ·· | 543 (43.7) |
| Little overwhelmed | ·· | ·· | 558 (44.9) |
| Very overwhelmed | ·· | ·· | 142 (11.4) |
| Changes in emotional and behavioural problemsc, CBCL/YSR | |||
| Changes in affective problems, mean (SD), range, Cronbach’s alpha | 1.00 (2.27), –10.00 to 10.00, α = 0.73 |
·· | ·· |
| Changes in anxiety problems, mean (SD), range, Cronbach’s alpha |
1.15 (2.29), –10.00 to 10.00, α = 0.79 |
·· | ·· |
| Changes in oppositional-def. problems, mean (SD), range, Cronbach’s alpha |
1.73 (2.47), –6.00 to 6.00, α = 0.89 |
·· | ·· |
| Changes in anxiety/depression, mean (SD), range, Cronbach’s alpha |
·· | 0.46 (3.14), –13.00 to 13.00, α = 0.87 |
0.14 (3.72), –13.00 to 13.00, α = 0.87 |
| Changes in withdrawn/depression, mean (SD), range, Cronbach’s alpha |
·· | 0.24 (2.02), –8.00 to 8.00, α = 0.84 |
−0.05 (2.48), –8.00 to 8.00, α = 0.81 |
| Changes in aggressive problems, mean (SD), range, Cronbach’s alpha |
·· | 1.27 (4.83), –18.00 to 18.00, α = 0.92 |
−0.71 (4.89), –17.00 to 17.00, α = 0.93 |
Note. ‘··’ indicates this item was not assessed in this study; a for calculation of T-scores mean score of the respective T-score for males and female was formed; binary gender (male/female) was used in regression analysis; b summary score comprised 7 items in the child-versions and 6 items in the adolescent-version; c raw summary-scores were calculated for each sub-/syndrome scale by summing the change-score of each corresponding item rated as decrease (score: −1), equal (score: 0), or increase (score: 1). Abbreviations: CBCL, Child Behaviour Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000; Döpfner et al., 2014); GAD-7 (Spitzer et al., 2006), Scale for General Anxiety Disorder; LES (Landolt & Vollrath, 1998), Life Event Scale; NA, not applicable to this age-group; PHQ-9 (Kroenke et al., 2001), Patient Health Questionnaire-9; YSR (Döpfner et al., 2014), Youth Self-Report.