The impact of school closure and social isolation on children in vulnerable families during COVID-19: a focus on children’s reactions

Larsen, Linda; Helland, Maren Sand; Holt, Tonje

For children the consequences of the COVID-19 public health measures may have long-term effects into adulthood. By exploring children’s reactions more broadly, we are better placed to understanding the breadth of implications of home school and social isolation under COVID-19. The present study explored how COVID-19 related variables, namely, home school experience, child perceived family stress and instability, screen time use, missing friends and worry about virus infection are associated with children’s emotional, somatic/cognitive and worry reactions, respectively. A total of 442 children (M = 11.43 years, SD = 2.59) from the longitudinal FamilieForSK-study participated and a series of hierarchical linear regression models were applied controlling for background variables including children’s psychological vulnerability. Results showed significant associations between all COVID-19 related predictors, except screen time use, and the three outcomes. Family stress and instability had the strongest effects with standardised betas ranging from .356 to .555 and collectively, predictors explained between 20.7 and 44.1% of variance in outcomes. Furthermore, several associations were moderated by age and older children were more negatively impacted (i.e., higher level of reported reactions). The present study provides more conclusive evidence of the effects of home school and social isolation under COVID-19 on children. It also exemplifies the importance of focusing on children’s reactions more broadly, as there was evidence that children on average had fewer emotional reactions compared to before the pandemic.