Suzuki Kota, Hiratani Michio
Faculty of Education, Shitennoji University, Habikino, Japan.
Hiratani Child Development Clinic, Fukui, Japan.
Front Pediatr. 2021 Dec 13;9:789045. doi: 10.3389/fped.2021.789045. eCollection 2021.
Human activities have been changing in conjunction with the status of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with school closures and activity cancellations becoming commonplace. As such, the COVID-19 pandemic likely also has had a detrimental impact on the behavioral problems of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). In Japan, the government issued a stay-at-home order causing children to stop participating in school activities following the first declaration of a state of emergency (April 7 to May 25, 2020). During winter 2020, the stay-at-home order and school closures were lifted. Using longitudinal data of children with NDD, we compared the behavioral problems of children with NDD between October 1 and December 31, 2020 (i.e., winter 2020) with their behavioral problems before the COVID-19 pandemic (pre-COVID-19). In this study, 143 caregivers of children with NDD evaluated their behavioral problems using the Japanese version of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC-J) in the pre-COVID-19 period and winter 2020. We found no scores that were higher in winter 2020 compared to pre-COVID-19. Moreover, irritability and hyperactivity scores were significantly lower in winter 2020 compared to pre-COVID-19. These findings suggest weak negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the behavioral problems of children with NDD. In schools and clinical practice, children learned knowledge about COVID-19 and related preventive behaviors. Therefore, these practices may have alleviated the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with NDD.
人类活动随着2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行的状况而不断变化，学校停课和活动取消已变得司空见惯。因此，COVID-19大流行可能也对神经发育障碍（NDD）儿童的行为问题产生了不利影响。在日本，政府发布了居家令，导致儿童在首次宣布紧急状态后（2020年4月7日至5月25日）停止参加学校活动。2020年冬季，居家令和学校停课措施解除。我们使用NDD儿童的纵向数据，比较了2020年10月1日至12月31日（即2020年冬季）NDD儿童的行为问题与COVID-19大流行之前（COVID-19之前）的行为问题。在本研究中，143名NDD儿童的照料者在COVID-19之前和2020年冬季使用日语版异常行为检查表（ABC-J）评估了他们的行为问题。我们发现，与COVID-19之前相比，2020年冬季没有更高的得分。此外，与COVID-19之前相比，2020年冬季的易怒和多动得分显著更低。这些发现表明COVID-19大流行对NDD儿童的行为问题产生的负面影响较弱。在学校和临床实践中，儿童学习了有关COVID-19的知识和相关预防行为。因此，这些做法可能减轻了COVID-19大流行对NDD儿童的负面影响。
