NEWS

My Turn: Cynthia García Coll: Let’s not forget the children during pandemic

Cynthia García Coll

The COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing and lockdown are having profound consequences on the mental health, development and well-being of children.

Children are facing family illness, death and loss of income and support, as well as the closing of schools, childcare centers and after-school programs. Social distancing leads to a disruption of daily routines and a loss of contact with relatives, peers and adult role-models, including teachers, coaches and counselors. The cumulative effects of these losses are significant for their short-term and long-term well-being.

Major impacts on children are due to drastic changes on family economics and functioning, especially in poor families and families of color. A poll by the Pew Research Center finds that more than half of low-income households report unemployment or underemployment, which includes more than 60% of Hispanics and 44% of African Americans. The economic fallout has resulted in surges in housing and food insecurity and suboptimal nutritional choices.

The economic and pandemic-specific factors lead to increases in parents’ stress, keeping parents from attending to children’s needs such as playing, talking and engaging with them in emotionally sensitive and cognitively stimulating ways, or helping with schoolwork. There have been reports of upticks in child abuse cases worldwide during the first months of the pandemic. Because most child maltreatment is reported by third-party individuals (e.g., teachers, guidance counselors), social distancing likely results in underreporting.

Another consequence of COVID-19 is increases in hate crimes. Stress exposure can exacerbate antisocial behaviors. Since COVID-19, reports of ethnic/racially charged hostility have increased, especially toward Asian-American populations. Marginalized and minoritized communities already face great adverse childhood experiences and stress, and this pandemic can deepen the ethnic/racial social divide and associated developmental risks.

COVID-19 presents the greatest risk to children’s and families’ mental health. A recent study showed that parents are reporting worse anxiety symptoms and youth are exhibiting a 42% increase in externalizing behavior, while access to behavioral health and outpatient services are diminishing. Youths with disabilities and mental-health diagnoses who depend on services are especially at risk. Even when accessible, families might not seek out services for fear of catching the virus.

The combination of stress and lack of access to important resources can have negative consequences for children’s neurocognitive and socioemotional development, including harmful effects on self-regulation. These effects worsen depending on duration and intensity, but also during key sensitive developmental periods (e.g., prenatally, infancy, puberty) or social transition periods (e.g., transition into school, transition into adulthood).

Finally, children are experiencing wide disparities in access and quality of education depending on school resources and availability of learning tools and support at home. Some children are expected to do seven hours of screen time daily. The short- and long-term effects of this amount of screen time on children’s brain development is unclear, although evidence suggests increased anxiety, behavior and sleep problems, and executive functioning deficits. Other children are not engaging in any educational experiences. The inequity in access to technology and education has never been so obvious.

In these unprecedented times, we cannot forget that COVID-19 poses significant threats to children’s well-being, even if they are not at highest risk for direct morbidity and mortality. It is affecting children through economic hardship, family stress and dysfunction, increased mental-health symptoms, educational barriers, limited access to support and interventions. While these issues are affecting all children, those who are poor and of color are disproportionately affected. Unless we intervene, these toxic stressful experiences will become embedded into the psychological and physiological matrix of children's development.

Cynthia García Coll was a professor at Brown University for 30 years. She is currently a professor at the University of Puerto Rico. Also contributing to this commentary are Norma J. Perez-Brena, Lisa M. López, Linda C. Halgunseth, Gustavo Carlo, Rashmita S. Mistry, Gabriela Livas Stein and Lee M. Pachter.