Adam Sarah L, Withers Abigail, Iantosca Jo Ann M, Stewart Shannon L
Faculty of Education, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
School of Early Childhood Education, Seneca College, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2024 Aug 2. doi: 10.1007/s10578-024-01741-y.
Children under the age of four are emotionally vulnerable to global disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic given the lack of socialization opportunities and coping mechanisms, and susceptibility to heightened caregiver stress. Currently, the extent to which the pandemic impacted the mental health of clinically referred young children is unknown. To evaluate how children's mental health outcomes were impacted during the pandemic, interRAI Early Years assessments (N = 1343) were obtained from 11 agencies across the Province of Ontario, during pre-pandemic and pandemic timepoints. Findings demonstrated that the number of completed assessments declined during the pandemic. Further, children's emotional concerns differed before and during the pandemic, whereby children exhibited greater emotional dysregulation during the pandemic. However, there were no significant differences when examining caregiver distress, parenting strengths, child distractibility/inattention or behavioural issues. Implications for young children and their families, clinicians, and policy makers are discussed.
由于缺乏社交机会和应对机制，以及易受照顾者压力增加的影响，四岁以下儿童在情感上容易受到全球灾难的影响，如新冠疫情。目前，疫情对临床转诊幼儿心理健康的影响程度尚不清楚。为了评估疫情期间儿童心理健康结果受到的影响，在疫情前和疫情期间，从安大略省的11个机构获取了儿童早期综合评价量表（interRAI Early Years）评估结果（N = 1343）。研究结果表明，疫情期间完成的评估数量有所下降。此外，儿童在疫情前和疫情期间的情感问题有所不同，在疫情期间儿童表现出更大的情绪失调。然而，在检查照顾者困扰、育儿优势、儿童注意力分散/注意力不集中或行为问题时，没有发现显著差异。本文讨论了对幼儿及其家庭、临床医生和政策制定者的启示。
