Psychological Wellbeing of Vulnerable Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Vallejo-Slocker, Laura; Fresneda, Javier; Vallejo, Miguel A

BACKGROUND A pandemic disaster has specific effects on mental health, however, little is known about those specific effects in children and adolescents. Thus, the aim of this study is to describe the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a sample of children and adolescents and to compare the results with previous national data and other studies to determine variations. METHOD A total of 459 children and adolescents in residential care, foster families, kinship families, or family strengthening programs under SOS Children’s Villages Spain were evaluated using the SDQ to measure internalizing and externalizing problems and using KIDSCREEN-10 index to measure heath related quality of life. An independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA and the chi-square test were used. RESULTS The children and adolescents in this study had worse psychological wellbeing than those in the 2017 Spanish reference, that is, before the COVID-19 outbreak. Quality of life remained the same. No differences between care modalities were found. CONCLUSION It is necessary to monitor the mental health status of children and adolescents to prevent possible problems. Additionally, it is necessary to use well-known assessment instruments because it is essential to have a reference to other situations and populations.