Abstract
The paper examines the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic on school‐age children and their families. Changes to their daily lives were examined through the lens of their physical, mental, and emotional well‐being. An analysis of current literature was conducted examining the emerging research on the pandemic's effects on families. A case example is provided to offer a narrative snapshot of the many experiences faced by children and families throughout school closures and stay at home orders. The paper concludes with implications for providers and further research with special attention paid to the emergence of telehealth and implications for treatment.
Keywords: covid‐19, school closures, school‐age children, well‐being
Practitioner points
Telehealth practice proved to be an effective intervention madality during COVID‐19.
Effective intervention strategies during times of crisis requires collaboration.
It is improtant to consider the impact of crisis such as COVID‐19 on healthcare providers well‐being.
1. INTRODUCTION
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has significantly affected lives around the world. During this pandemic, people have experienced varying degrees of social distancing mandates, physical and psychological isolation, and severe economic shutdown. These actions created dramatic and unwanted changes in the psychosocial environment of those effected by the pandemic.
Many would contend that COVID‐19 impacted children, adolescents, and their families in an unmatched manner. Families were facing a new landscape from COVID‐19 challenges (Patrick et al., 2020). Schools were closed, social contacts strongly limited, and out‐of‐home recreational and extracurricular activities were often canceled. Parents were asked to support their children with home‐schooling, while at the same time working from home. The isolating features of social distancing posed contradictory health needs: How do parents balance the mental health of family members with physical health needs? To add to the problem, external support by other family members and social support systems often disappeared. The combination of wide‐ranging social and emotional challenges posed by COVID‐19 often led to rising levels of tension within families (Mollborn et al., 2021). This dynamic struggle could be seen as teens who wanted more social interaction began to view the protective efforts of their parents as “paranoid,” whereas on the other hand, the parents who valued health precautions saw the demands of their teens for a better social life as “being unsafe” and perhaps immature (Mollborn et al., 2021).
Although families were struggling to adjust to the changing psychosocial environment, schools were placed in the position to somehow pivot from traditional teaching methods to, instead, offer a range of learning options. Children, adolescents, and parents were in turn asked to engage in learning modalities that were not often familiar to them. It is certainly one thing for children and teens to be comfortable with various social media programs for entertainment, but it is an entirely different issue to use technology as the primary, or at least secondary, source of their education. The changes were dramatic. According to a study by Verlenden et al. (2021), over 45% of children ages 5–12 received their education entirely through virtual means. Another 23% engaged in “hybrid” learning, whereas only ~30% experience their education as entirely face‐to‐face. The researchers found that parents of children receiving in‐person instruction reported the lowest levels of any negative signs of child and parental well‐being. However, “children receiving virtual or combined instruction and their parents might need additional support to mitigate stress, including linkage to social and mental health services and opportunities to engage in safe physical activity to reduce risks associated with chronic health conditions” (Verlenden et al., 2021; p. 375). The families dealing with 100% virtual education were facing challenges that called for supports to make it through the pandemic.
As the pandemic continues to evolve through various phases, this study evaluates the impact these phases might have on mental health of children, adolescents, and their parents. The paper also explores the physical health challenges that families faced in light of limited opportunities for recreational activities outside the home (Alves et al., 2020). A case example is provided that exemplifies how one teen and her family were affected by the pandemic. Finally, implications are discussed for service providers and future researchers.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Mental health impact of school closures
School changes due to COVID‐19 impacted the mental wellness of both children and their families. The uncertainty of the pandemic significantly increased levels of anxiety, depression, irritability, and emotional exhaustion compared with pre‐pandemic levels (Alves et al., 2020; Fegert et al., 2020). Fegert et al. (2020) also found posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in 24%–28% of those surveyed. Individuals with previous exposure to trauma are particularly vulnerable to pandemic related stressors (Sethy & Mishra, 2020).
Families who experienced virtual schooling were at greater risk of mental health challenges for both parents and students. For students attending school online, mental health challenges were even more pronounced. Children receiving virtual or hybrid instruction reported higher rates of anxiety, depression, and chronic health conditions as opposed to children receiving in‐person instruction (Verlenden et al., 2021). Challenges of virtual schools extended to parents as well, as parents took on additional responsibility to supervise and facilitate their children's education (Sethy & Mishra, 2020; Verlenden et al., 2021).
Additional concerns have been raised about the impacts of increase of screen time for children brought about by the pandemic. Children averaged 4.4 h of recreational screen time during the pandemic (Tandon et al., 2021). Excessive screen time is linked to numerous psychological and biological maladies for children including poorer sleep, increased obesity, and increased depression and anxiety (Domingues‐Montanari, 2017; Twenge & Campbell, 2018).
The quality of families' physical health also declined during the pandemic. For example, school‐age children exhibited higher rates of sedentary behavior as opposed to pre‐pandemic levels (Dunton et al., 2020; Sethy & Mishra, 2020; Tandon et al., 2021). Middle school and high school children were particularly vulnerable to diminished physical activity as only 13.5% engaged in the recommended 60 min of physical activity a day (Tandon et al., 2021). Children receiving virtual or hybrid forms of education had far lower rates of physical activity compared with their peers attending in‐person (Verlanden et al., 2021).
2.2. Physical health impact of school closures
Physical activity has long been linked to positive cognitive health outcomes for children. Pandemic era studies found a heightened link between health and physical activity. For example, upper school‐age children that experienced moderate exercise even 1 day a week had better mental health outcomes during the pandemic (Tandon et al., 2021). Others found an increase in physical activity and decrease in screen time resulted in diminished anxiety scores for 9‐ to 15‐year‐old children (Alves et al., 2020). Furthermore, elevated body mass index scores were correlated to elevated anxiety levels (Alves et al., 2020).
The increase of time spent at home has had a negative effect on student's rates of physical activity. Before the pandemic, studies demonstrated that when children are out of school during holidays and summer vacation, children's average rates of physical activity decline (Sethy & Mishra, 2020). Similar results were found with the implementation of stay‐at‐home orders. Children receiving virtual or hybrid instruction had lower rates of physical activity compared with students attending in‐person school, whereas children attending school in‐person maintained similar levels of physical activity (Verlenden et al., 2021).
Overall, school‐age children increased their levels of sedentary activity during the pandemic (Duton et al., 2020, Tandon et al., 2021). The most significant decrease in physical activity was related to upper school‐aged children. Before the pandemic, 25% middle school‐ and high school‐aged children met the recommended average of 60 min of daily physical activity. During the pandemic, this percentage dropped to 13.5%, largely due to the reduction of structured physical activity through organized sports (Tandon et al., 2021).
The literature demonstrated several protective factors for healthy physical activity. First, lower government restrictions were linked with higher rates of physical activity (Constandt et al., 2020). Second, younger aged children averaged similar rates of physical activity due to the fact that many of their forms of unstructured play that required little structure or organization (Tandon et al., 2021). Individuals were also more likely to exercise when doing so reaped social benefits, such as working out with a partner, family member, or online community (Constandt et al., 2020).
3. CASE EXAMPLE
Aaliyah is a 16‐year‐old African American teenager. She lives with her mother, father, and three siblings in a single‐family home in midsized town in the Midwest. Aaliyah's family has a middle‐class lifestyle and both of her parents have modest jobs. Before the pandemic began, Aaliyah was socially active with friends and saw them every weekend. She participated in extracurricular activities like volleyball and theater. Once the pandemic came, her school transitioned to virtual schooling and her life routines were drastically changed. She no longer saw friends regularly and her extracurricular activities were canceled.
Aaliyah experienced great difficulty with the transition. Aaliyah became more emotional and experienced periods of sadness and moodiness. Before the pandemic, she was a straight “A” student, but in lockdown Aaliyah struggled with motivation and was now trying hard to simply pass her classes. Aaliyah described that her classes were overloading her with busywork and it was difficult to keep up with deadlines. All the while, she explained that even though she was doing more work, she felt as though she was learning less than she had been in person. Aaliyah said, “I felt like I was working harder while learning less.”
Aaliyah's parents were greatly concerned with the change in her disposition but were unsure how to help. Her dad gave her chores like walking the dog to help ensure that she got regular activity even though she did not feel inclined to do so. Aaliyah stated, “In the moment, I hated that my dad made me go on walks with our dog every day, but looking back at it, I'm really grateful he made me get out of the house.” Aaliyah's mom helped her facilitate a few social events where she was able to meet with her friends outside in a physically distanced manner. The reduced level of activity did lead to a small weight gain for Aaliyah and this created in her an increased level of self‐doubt and moderate depression.
Aaliyah's parents had their own challenges. Aaliyah's mom works as a high school teacher and coach, and her work was all transitioned virtually. Aaliyah's dad was furloughed from his job, which created economic strain on the family. With both parents at home meant that everyone in Aaliyah's family was at home at all hours of the day. At many points, each member of the family was using the internet at the same time, creating difficulty with internet connections and speed. Aaliyah stated, “Sometimes my internet connection would cut out during an important zoom meeting with one of my teachers and then I would panic and worry that I was missing important information.” Adding to the family's discomfort was their lack of privacy as everyone was easily able to overhear each other's virtual meetings. Aaliyah explained, “things in our house always felt tense. Everyone felt like they were on top of each other with nowhere to escape.” Sometimes Aaliyah would feel embarrassed when one of her siblings or her parents would come into the room while she was on a zoom call. At one point, she got in a conflict with her dad while she was on a zoom call. Aaliyah said, “I was so embarrassed that my whole class saw my dad talk to me like I was a little kid. No one said anything, but I avoided attending class for a few days after that.”
4. SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PROVIDERS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
The information provided within this paper has highlighted some major issues as people attempted to adjust to the multiple demands presented by a global pandemic. It was noted how children, adolescents, and their parents were affected across multiple areas. Mental health issues arose, as did challenges to succeed academically via virtual platforms. Consideration was also given to the various issues that families encountered around maintaining physical health during the pandemic. This became more difficult as normal recreational and extracurricular events were often cancelled. These various issues came to life through the case example of Aaliyah, a 16‐year‐old female who experienced bouts of sadness and moodiness. She expressed her frustrations with a virtual learning approach that kept her busy, but feeling that she was still not learning enough.
4.1. The emergence of telehealth as a vital service
The consistent issue that kept appearing was the critical role that mental health played in the overall well‐being of children, adolescents, and their parents. The irony of the situation was that although the rise of mental health needs was occurring, there was a reduction in the ability for people to seek face‐to‐face treatment because of the necessary limitations of social interactions and the requirements for social distancing. A critical implication of this change was that many in the counseling field knew that the answer would have to be telehealth (Hopkins & Pedwell, 2021). Fortunately, there was a dramatic shift in providing mental health services in traditional manner to virtual offerings. Some claim that this change is perhaps the most dramatic in the history of mental health care (Pinals et al., 2020). Mental health care in communities has historically been delivered within an agency setting with very few variations. There have been some limited efforts in delivery of telehealth services to remote areas (e.g., rural areas), but not on a large scale. It can be said that there have been other efforts to increase online modalities but that these have often been hampered by issues related to technology, privacy, insurance coverage, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act violations, and so on, which limited offering of services (Lal & Adair, 2014). We can see how the national lockdown and social distancing requirements caused by the pandemic led to a simultaneous shift of service delivery from face‐to‐face to virtual modalities and a requirement for many staff to work from home. These shifts, which might have taken decades to occur under ordinary circumstances, were achieved within a matter of weeks.
4.1.1. Challenges in telehealth
However, rapid the shifts might have occurred, some question if there are enough virtual service available to meet the needs of people experiencing mental health issues directly or indirectly connected with the pandemic. These factors were also complicated by pre‐existing inequities in the delivery of mental health care (Park et al., 2018). There were additional difficulties experienced even when telehealth could be provided. Hopkins and Pedwell (2021) list four challenges. First, telehealth provision could mean diminished privacy for clients. As the services were being delivered to clients at their home, there could be less guarantee that there might be someone within their house who could hear the “private” conversations. The same could hold true for the service provider. Second, it was found that younger clients had a harder time maintaining focus during sessions. This should not be a surprise as many face‐to‐face sessions involve use of hands‐on activities that might be harder to engage in during a virtual session. Third, the virtual option might make it hard to reach high risk or unstable clients. The relative impersonal nature of virtual sessions might make it more difficult to form the necessary level of rapport with these types of individuals. Finally, some clients just did not have the level of technology, either hardware and/or bandwidth, to engage in virtual sessions. For example, our university‐based clinic needed to send out vehicles with high‐speed routers to rural areas in order for those residents to use the virtual telehealth services of the clinic. Not everyone has this type of resource.
4.1.2. Advantages to telehealth
Although these challenges to providing telehealth were notable, it should also be observed that there were advantages to this approach (Hopkins & Pedwell, 2021). Certainly, the most obvious is that the virtual sessions allowed help to continue despite extreme lock‐down environments. Although stay at home orders were in effect, clients could connect with their therapist virtually. Others noted that by moving to a virtual environment, it allowed for more parents to be involved with the treatment of their children. Many parents were forced to work from home and therefore more readily available to be part of the sessions. As one researcher noted, “Parents should take advantage of the prolonged home confinement to improve parent–child interaction, enhance their self‐sufficiency skills by involving them in household activities, strengthen the family bond, and meet the child's psychological needs by adopting the right parenting approach” (Sethy & Mishra, 2020; p. 2).
4.2. Building mental health into the classroom
The federal government began making funds available to schools to assist in efforts to cope with the impact of COVID‐19 on students and staff. The American Rescue Plan Act was passed in March 2021 (American Psychological Association, 2022). It provided ~$170 billion for school funding and many schools used the funding to hire mental health workers to work directly with their students. However, this has proved challenging as it is difficult to find enough workers to provide the range of services needed by schools. Although adding more staff can help, school systems were still left trying to find ways to bring more help directly to their students.
Singh et al. (2020) note that some schools have taken the approach to provide training for teachers in basic social and emotional skills to help their students cope with the continuing stresses experienced as a result of the pandemic. Some teachers have taken this one step farther and have started to include formal mental health lessons into their curriculum with help from mental health professionals. Singh et al. (2020) also suggest that it is important that teachers interact with parents online or through phone regarding issues related to a student's mental well‐being. This can be a vital connection for teachers to make should they wish to serve as a doorway for identification and referral of youth to mental health providers. The connection that teachers make with parents is vital to this occurring.
4.3. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)
Podder et al. (2022) suggest that since teachers are the backbones of schools, it is necessary that they have an understanding of how to develop psychological well‐ being of the students. They suggest this can be ensured by including mental health first‐aid in the teacher training curriculum. One type of training they promote is the MHFA program that has been well‐researched and widely implemented. MHFA is an 8 h manualized course that teaches participants how to identify and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders (National Council for Behavioral Health, 2016). MHFA teaches participants a five‐step action plan to support individuals developing signs and symptoms of a mental illness or emotional crisis. The steps include: Assessing for risk of suicide or harm; Listening nonjudgmentally; Giving reassurance and information; Encouraging appropriate professional help; and Encouraging self‐help and other support strategies (Approach, Assess, and Assist with any crisis [ALGEE]). In a study by Gryglewicz et al. (2018), it was training school staff in in the use of MHFA led to significant improvements in mental health, improved confidence in school staff's ability to identify and respond to students with mental health problems, and increased intentions by staff to engage in help‐seeking behaviors with students. They also reported a significant overall decrease in negative attitudes toward youth with mental health problems. The use of MHFA in the context of COVID‐19 seems very important since teachers are typically the ones who get to observe and interact with many students together. Such type of infrastructural support may be extended to institutionalized children and adolescents as well.
4.4. Implications for providers
It certainly seems that an important indication for providers is that they need to become even more adept at the use of technology in their work with clients. Virtual sessions obviously can be helpful in times of a pandemic, but they can be used in other situations as well. For example, Raballo et al. (2021) found that implementing digital tools helped to encourage help‐seeking by youth who are already familiar with digital media. Others note that the expansion of telehealth, both for physical and mental issues, could be a vital part of any plan to improve our public health infrastructure. One of the key implications from research seems to be that increasing virtual options for mental health services and research could help increase overall access to mental health care and research (Johnson et al., 2021).
4.5. Implications for future research
There are several important implications for research based upon the observations within this article. First, it would seem that the effects of COVID‐19 were pervasive across children, adolescents, and their parents. There were notable increases in incidents of various mental health issues as well as academic challenges. Future research will need to explore and differentiate between those issues that proved short‐term and those that prove to have a longer lasting impact (Tromans et al., 2020). This is critical for future intervention planning as well.
Another issue for future research is an exploration of the differential effects that COVID‐19 had based upon being an underrepresented minority. Related to this is the need to further explore how various social determinants were connected to overall adjustment and well‐being of children, adolescents, and their parents in coping with COVID‐19 (Tromans et al., 2020). These findings are critical to future intervention planning as well as policy formation in healthcare.
Stone, G. , Witzig, T. , & McIntosh, C. (2022). The impact of COVID‐19 on school‐age children. Psychology in the Schools, 1–8. 10.1002/pits.22831
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