Protective and risk activities for emotional and behavioural well-being of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Ilaria Nicolì, Maria Spinelli, Francesca Lionetti and 2 others
PMID 35297081WHAT IT FOUND
In lockdown, more social network time was linked to more emotional difficulties in children and fewer in adolescents.
More solitary screen time was linked to more behavioural problems. Getting along with a parent was linked to fewer problems.
Key findings
01More time on social networks was associated with more emotional difficulties in children and with fewer emotional difficulties in adolescents.
02More solitary screen time was associated with more behavioural problems in both children and adolescents.
03Getting along with a parent was associated with fewer emotional and behavioural problems in children and with fewer behavioural problems in adolescents; talking about the next day's activities was associated with fewer behavioural problems in adolescents.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Parents reported both the child's activities and the child's emotional and behavioural problems. The survey was collected 1 month after the start of Italy's first wave lockdown, so it may not reflect other times. The study did not explore the full range of possible child and adolescent activities. The design was a survey, so it shows associations, not that any activity caused better or worse well-being. Children and adolescents did not report their own experiences.
Declared interests
No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reducing social network time will improve children's emotional difficulties or that increasing it will help adolescents. The study reports associations from parent questionnaires during one lockdown period, not tested interventions.