Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Education and Child Studies, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Research Methods and Statistics, Institute of Education and Child Studies, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2024 Oct;54(10):3670-3683. doi: 10.1007/s10803-023-06101-8. Epub 2023 Sep 10.
Studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on autistic children's psychosocial outcomes have shown mixed results. In the current study we aimed to gain a better insight into the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing psychosocial outcomes collected pre-pandemic with data collected during the pandemic. We used the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to examine change over time in psychosocial outcomes of autistic children from pre-pandemic (T0) to lockdown I (T1) and lockdown II (T2) in the Netherlands. We expected a deterioration in psychosocial outcomes. There were 224 participants in T0 and T1, of which 141 also participated in T2. The results showed a surprising improvement in psychosocial outcomes from T0 to T1. Special education and female gender were associated with increased difficulties over time, while higher age was associated with decreased difficulties. At the subdomain level we found that emotional problems remained stable, while hyperactivity, conduct problems, and peer problems decreased, and prosocial behavior increased. Attending special education predicted increased peer problems over time, while higher age predicted both decreased conduct problems and increased prosocial behavior over time. The COVID-19 pandemic may have temporarily improved the fit between the psychosocial needs and the environment for children with autism in the Netherlands.
关于 COVID-19 大流行对自闭症儿童心理社会结果影响的研究结果喜忧参半。在本研究中，我们旨在通过比较大流行前收集的数据与大流行期间收集的数据，更深入地了解 COVID-19 大流行的影响。我们使用长处和困难问卷（SDQ）来检查荷兰自闭症儿童从大流行前（T0）到封锁 I（T1）和封锁 II（T2）期间心理社会结果随时间的变化。我们预计心理社会结果会恶化。T0 和 T1 有 224 名参与者，其中 141 名也参加了 T2。结果表明，T0 到 T1 期间心理社会结果出人意料地有所改善。特殊教育和女性性别与随时间增加的困难有关，而较高的年龄与随时间减少的困难有关。在子域水平上，我们发现情绪问题保持稳定，而多动、行为问题和同伴问题减少，亲社会行为增加。接受特殊教育预示着随着时间的推移同伴问题会增加，而较高的年龄预示着随着时间的推移行为问题会减少，亲社会行为会增加。COVID-19 大流行可能暂时改善了荷兰自闭症儿童的心理社会需求与环境之间的契合度。
