It is a worrying development. Not least because mental health care for children and young people is already under great pressure.

The pandemic and the resulting measures have left many children and young people in the dark, a new study shows. The number of children and young people struggling with fear and gloom increased significantly in the first lockdown of 2020. And although their numbers had declined slightly by the time of the second lockdown, the number of children and young people suffering from mental health problems is still higher than before the pandemic. And that is cause for concern.

The research

The researchers base their research results – which last week as pre-publication published – on a survey among parents of Dutch children (between 8 and 18 years old). The children can roughly be divided into two groups: a ‘healthy group’ (consisting of children who did not receive mental care at the start of the study) and a ‘clinical group’ (consisting of children who did receive mental care). Before the pandemic and in April and November 2020, all parents completed a questionnaire that dealt with their children’s mental health.

The results

It gives researchers a good idea of ​​how the children fared during this unparalleled period. And then it turns out that the number of children with mental health problems has increased since the pandemic. “In the ‘healthy group’, we saw worrisome problems in 7.1% of children and young people before the pandemic,” says Tinca Polderman, researcher in child and adolescent psychiatry. That’s in line with what researchers have seen over the past 20 years. “During the first lockdown (April 2020) this increased to 15.6% and during the 2nd lockdown (November 2020) it had fallen, but still one and a half times as much (10.4%).” Surprisingly, in the ‘clinical group’ parents did not report an increase in problems. “But the children themselves reported more problems in terms of anxiety and depression,” says Polderman. The results therefore indicate that both children and adolescents in the general and clinical population were negatively impacted by the pandemic. the pre-publication to read.

The results did not immediately surprise co-researcher Meike Bartels, professor of behavioral genetics, she says Scientias.nl. “It was difficult to predict what the effects would be, because a global pandemic like COVID-19 has not occurred in the past century. Our expectation was therefore based on what we do know, which is that there are large individual differences between how children behave and react to situations. The pandemic could therefore be very difficult for some, while others could cope better, or even find the new situation pleasant. Our study results are therefore not surprising. So on average, the problems have increased, but there are also differences between children, in other words, not all children are getting worse.” In fact, the research also shows that many children and young people did well during the pandemic.

Decrease

The fact that the number of children and young people dealing with anxiety and depression has increased during the pandemic is worrying. At the same time, the fact that their numbers declined again over the course of the pandemic is also cautiously hopeful. The big question, however, is whether the decline will continue and eventually return to pre-pandemic levels. “Since we have never been in such a situation, it is difficult to speculate about how the level of problems will develop.”

Why are children and young people more anxious and depressed since the pandemic?
Nothing can be said about this based on this research. But based on previous work, Polderman does have ideas about this. “Previous studies of ours did show that the loss of work and/or income of parents had an impact on the feelings of anxiety and sadness in children from the healthy population. Also, having a person infected with COVID-19 in the immediate vicinity during the onset of the pandemic had an effect on these feelings of fear.”

youth mental health care

Polderman and colleagues will continue to follow the children in the study and hope to clarify whether the decrease in feelings of fear and gloomy that started again in the course of 2020 will continue. It is hoped – partly with a view to youth mental health care – according to Polderman. Because if the number of children and young people with mental health problems remains above pre-pandemic levels, the number of young people who may need professional care could also increase. “The main implication is that there is an increase in mental health problems in the healthy population and this could translate into an increase in youth mental health services. In view of the already existing pressure on youth mental health care, this may be a worrying development.”

At the same time, the researchers also emphasize that not every child or young person with an increase in mental problems will immediately call on youth mental health care. “There are many possibilities to receive support at home, at school, with friends, through drop-in places or online platforms where young people help each other, etcetera,” said researcher Arne Popma, professor of child and youth psychiatry. “A lot of great initiatives were created or strengthened during the pandemic, it is important that we now make them more sustainable, because even before the pandemic we already saw that with the current system we could not provide enough children and young people with the right support and care in time. to achieve.”

Scientists will keep their finger on the pulse in the near future. And parents and carers would also do well to keep an eye on the mental health of their children – even now that we seem to have ended up in somewhat calmer waters from a pandemic point of view. But how do you do that? “It is always important to start a conversation when parents see changes in the child’s behavior,” says Polderman. “To keep asking if things are really going well. Or to be vulnerable as an adult and to show that you can talk about feelings.”