The harms of pandemic-related disruptions on young people will be deeper and may last longer if schools don’t return to in-person learning in the fall, according to findings from an ongoing COVID-19 mental health study from researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children.
More than half of children aged eight to 12 reported clinically significant depressive symptoms during the second wave of the pandemic. That number jumps to 70 per cent among adolescents surveyed.
The preliminary findings are significant as Ontario prepares its back-to-school plan for the fall, with researchers warning that just opening school doors without offering extracurricular activities and mental health supports will not be enough to reverse the impact.
Researchers said the results are worrying, as the findings reveal children and youth’s mental health did not bounce back in the aftermath of the pandemic’s second wave during February and March.
“We didn’t see evidence of adaptation and resilience,” said Dr. Daphne Korczak, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Sick Kids and principal investigator of the ongoing study.
The findings also reveal that longer time spent in online school is associated with higher rates of significant depression and anxiety symptoms, among both children with pre-existing mental health issues and those without. While the results are from the second wave of the pandemic, schools in Ontario were closed to in-person learning throughout the third wave, from April to the end of the school year.
Korczak added when schools did open briefly in the second wave, children’s mental health did not return to near pre-pandemic levels, pointing to the chronic stress children have been exposed to in light of COVID-19 public health measures.
“We are seeing that children of all ages have had negative consequences from public health guidelines that have largely been put in place to protect adults,” said Dr. Catherine Birken, a senior scientist and pediatrician at Sick Kids.
The latest Sick Kids data is preliminary and has not been peer-reviewed, Birken said, but it was released early with hopes the public can use it to make informed decisions leading up to the fall. Some 1,500 parents and children in Ontario were surveyed for the study.
“(The results) are very, very concerning for us, and we wanted to share that preliminary information if it’s helpful for parents, clinicians and policy-makers to think about how to mitigate that as we move into the school year,” Birken said.
In Ontario, much of the 2020-21 school year had been disrupted by rising cases of COVID-19, forcing schools to shift to online learning for a total of 26 weeks. Premier Doug Ford did not opt to resume in-person instruction in June due to fears of the highly contagious Delta variant spreading in classrooms, despite announcing plans for a gradual economic reopening.
Schools remained closed for students in Ontario as the province moved into Stage 1 of reopening in mid-June, which included opening restaurant patios and retail with limited capacity.
Children in southern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area, especially, have been subject to some of the harshest pandemic measures in the country, Korczak said. This includes school closures and cancellation of extracurricular activities. The province also ordered the brief closure of outdoor activities, including playgrounds, in April, a move that was met with a swift backlash from parents, leading Ontario to reverse its decision.
“Kids in Ontario experienced this stressor chronically for this year, and the longer the stressors continue, like the cancellation or changes to schools, the greater the risk is of a long-term problem,” Korczak said.
Another study released Thursday by the Applied Research Group for Kids, co-ordinated by Sick Kids and St. Michael’s Hospital, revealed that kids up to age 10 in Toronto who followed public health preventative measures during the pandemic’s first wave spent less time outdoors and more time on their screens, which is considered to be unhealthy behaviour.
Birken said broad public health guidelines were necessary at the onset of the pandemic, when COVID-19 was not understood as a virus, but as the province gears up to release its back-to-school plan, she hopes policy-makers will consider the detrimental mental health effect the pandemic has had on kids.
Research since the onset of the pandemic has shown that while children can develop COVID-19, many of them have no symptoms or symptoms that are mild in nature. Complications can occur, however, in rare cases. Vaccines have also proven to be very effective in preventing serious illness or death, with more than half of adults in Ontario fully vaccinated as of early July.
“We now know a lot more, so I think we now can be much more careful about the guidelines and we should be much more mindful of the impacts this will have on children,” she said.
Birken said Sick Kids’ research also found a reduction in kids participating in extracurricular activities, which are tied to better mental health outcomes for children and youth. The study also reveals the significant loss of in-school services, like speech therapy and counselling services, have resulted in worsening mental health.
An increase in screen time was also found to contribute to heightened depression, irritability, anxiety, hyperactivity and inattention.
Sick Kids’ ongoing study aims to measure the mental health impacts of the pandemic on children and youth in Ontario, researchers said. The preliminary results follow a report released by the hospital in February, which found social isolation of children during the pandemic’s first wave led to a deterioration in their mental health.
What’s to come for Ontario’s school-aged children in September is still unclear. Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the province is expecting to produce a back-to-school plan by mid-July. As vaccinations in Ontario ramp up, teachers and youth aged 12 and up who want to be fully-vaccinated will be able to do so by the fall, but no vaccine has yet been approved for younger children. COVID-19 variants, meanwhile, continue to pose a threat of further spread.
For September, Birken said she hopes there will be a heightened focus on in-person learning that includes the return of extracurricular activities and other support programs, including mental health services, while reducing disruptions to schooling. Birken added it’s important for schools and policy-makers to be mindful that some children will have a harder time bouncing back than others, and to accommodate them accordingly.
“Parents, clinicians and schools need to really consider the health and well-being of children as we move forward,” she said. “We’re hopefully talking about a recovery in the next year, and we really need to support children through that recovery.”
Article From: The Star
Author: Nadine Yousif
