Skeens Micah A, Hill Kylie, Olsavsky Anna, Ralph Jessica E, Udaipuria Shivika, Akard Terrah Foster, Gerhardt Cynthia A
Center for Biobehavioral Health, Nationwide Childrens Hospital, Columbus, OH, United States.
Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University School of Medicine, Columbus, OH, United States.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 13;13:1079848. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1079848. eCollection 2022.
COVID-19 resulted in mass quarantine measures early in the pandemic. This disruption of daily life widened inequities and made children one of the most vulnerable populations during the crisis. This national, cross-sectional "COVID-Kids" study collected data from almost 500 parent-child dyads using standardized measures to better understand the effects of COVID exposure and impact on children's quality of life and loneliness. Data were collected social media from May to July 2020. According to parent proxy and child self-report, United States children experienced worse quality of life ( < 0.0001; = 0.45 and 0.53) and greater child-reported loneliness ( < 0.0001) when compared to normative, healthy samples (i.e., children who do not have a chronic medical condition). Older children ( = 0.16, = 0.001) and female children ( = 0.11, = 0.02) reported greater loneliness. Higher child-reported family functioning scores were associated with better quality of life ( = 0.36, < 0.0001) and less loneliness ( = -0.49, < 0.0001). Moderated mediation analyses indicated the indirect effect of parent COVID impact on the association between COVID exposure and child quality of life was weaker in the context of better family functioning. Results of this study raise concern for the short-and long-term sequelae of the pandemic on the physical and mental health of children. Healthcare providers and researchers must find new and innovative ways to protect the well-being of children. Strengthening family functioning may buffer the effects of the pandemic and improve overall quality of life in our "COVID Kids."
新冠疫情早期导致了大规模隔离措施。这种日常生活的中断加剧了不平等，使儿童成为危机期间最脆弱的群体之一。这项全国性的横断面“新冠儿童”研究使用标准化测量方法从近500对亲子二元组中收集数据，以更好地了解新冠暴露及其对儿童生活质量和孤独感的影响。数据于2020年5月至7月通过社交媒体收集。根据家长代理报告和儿童自我报告，与正常健康样本（即没有慢性疾病的儿童）相比，美国儿童的生活质量更差（<0.0001；效应量=0.45和0.53），儿童报告的孤独感更强（<0.0001）。年龄较大的儿童（效应量=0.16，<0.001）和女童（效应量=0.11，=0.02）报告的孤独感更强。儿童报告的家庭功能得分越高，生活质量越好（效应量=0.36，<0.0001），孤独感越少（效应量=-0.49，<0.0001）。调节中介分析表明，在家庭功能较好的情况下，家长感染新冠对新冠暴露与儿童生活质量之间关联的间接影响较弱。这项研究的结果引发了人们对疫情对儿童身心健康的短期和长期后遗症的担忧。医疗保健提供者和研究人员必须找到新的创新方法来保护儿童的福祉。加强家庭功能可能会缓冲疫情的影响，提高我们“新冠儿童”的整体生活质量。
