Corona virus lockdown and it's effects on children

Corona Virus Lockdown and Its Effects on Children

Introduction

The outbreak of Covid-19 had significant consequences on the life of children not only in the United States but around the globe. Although the implication of the pandemic measures, such as social isolation and lockdown in parents and their children, is still unknown, the significant factor is that it changed people's way of life. For instance, the subsequent social distance practices caused a major change in people's daily living routines. As throughout the world, the essential modus of prevention from the Coronavirus has been social distancing and isolation strategies which many countries thought were the best way to prevent their people from the risk of infection. On these grounds, the pandemic started infringing on individuals' lives, not only children's but all people around the globe. Although the pandemic was found to have less mortality and morbidity effect on children, restrictions imposed by governments worldwide profoundly impacted their daily life, including social and mental health. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss coronavirus lockdown's implication and psychological effect and its effect on children.

Impact of the Pandemic Lockdown on Children

According to the World Health Organization, lockdown negatively affected psychological well-being, especially in children. Due to the pandemic, children and their families were deprived of their work, sports activities, and education. What seemed more important, they were denied the right to relational contact and friendship. It is clear that pandemic and lockdown measurements led to social isolation that severely affected the mental health of the generation population, thus causing an increase in depression, anxiety, and mental distress because people were to change their daily life in order to mitigate the spread of the pandemic (Viner et al., par 6). With lockdown, children changed their daily lives, which drastically affected their psychological well-being because school was closed. Educational services were sometimes suspended to help minimize the spread of the pandemic. Also, the strict measures that the government established

Although children were less infected by the virus, it greatly impacted their individual lives due to the disruption of daily routines. The widespread pandemic caused the closure of educational institutions, which made children experience uncertainties and social and physical isolation due to prolonged periods of missing school. With the school's closure, children's lives were impacted as their daily schedules were interrupted, thus making most of them lack constructive things to do order during the time. The prolonged and unexpected interruptions on normal school routines had tremendous implications for the children's lives because they limited their connection with their peers, thus representing an important risk factor for mental and physical health in children and their families. It is true that the lockdown measures disrupted children's daily routines in the United States and globally (Singh et al., 2020). The disruption of educational routine due to the pandemic increased children's exposure to the screen because many educational institutions embrace long-distance learning. It has also been indicated that the lack of a significant daily routine during the pandemic period made children take more of their time on social media, which contributed to the highest cases of suicide among children during the pandemic. This indicates that the measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the children; apart from disrupting their academic program, it also caused harm to their mental and physical well-being. For instance, the school closure and social distancing increased children's exposure to domestic violence and reduced access to vital family and care services. The government decided to close schools across the world as a necessary measure to reduce the transmission, but the lack of government looking at the negative implication of the measures caused both parents and government all along because the measure increased the change in children's lifestyle (Fegert et al., 5). From a purely medical perspective, evidence showed that children were not the most affected group with the pandemic, but the measure to mitigate the pandemic within the household led to the school's closure to maintain the low cases of the covid across the country. But even though the decision by the government was essential, they did not look at the negative impact the decision had on the life of children life. As a result of school closure, some education institutions enhanced digitalization to mitigate education loss caused by the school closure without looking at the economic and social background of each child in the country (Fasano et al, 2021). The children from low-income families were unable to afford internet connection and a good home; thus, the introduction of distance learning was isolated. Further, the lockdown increased the unsupervised cases of online internet use that magnified sexual orientation and cyberbullying among children. Given that the pandemic had different impacts on children from different backgrounds, it is clear lack of immediate measures by government to ensure that all children are well protected during the pandemic contributed to the highest number of them being negatively affected during the pandemic.

Also, the pandemic lockdown had major economic implications and financial pressure on many families. It has been indicated in previous economic recessions that economic pressure has a significant impact that can pose a severe threat to mental health. This was the case during the pandemic, as many parents lost their jobs due to the lockdown, thus unable to provide for their children's basic needs. Increased unemployment, income decline, and unmanageable debts among the families during the pandemic increased the risk for mental problems in children. As with the lockdown, the parents were unable to provide all the basic necessities that the children needed, which contributed to increased economic stress and consequential marital conflict. With exposure to domestic violence, children are mentally affected, which can have long-term consequences in their lives (Singh et al., 293). But lack of government measures to ensure that children from low-income families receive quality healthcare, food, and other basic necessities contributed to their increased mental effect during the pandemic. Due to the lockdown, parents lost their jobs; thus, government-enhancing policies that support parental employment during the pandemic would have helped mitigate the cases of domestic violence during the pandemic due to income decline among the families. The pandemic measures greatly impacted poor children as they were exposed to different family issues such as violence, which contributed to most of them being exposed to mental health problems. Based on this view, children from poor socioeconomic backgrounds were mostly affected by lockdown measures. For example, because of lockdown measures, children lost the opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities and come in contact with supportive adults in the community and access the justice system. Therefore, it is true that lockdown measures increased the unemployment among the families, which led to increased cases of domestic violence among children.

It has also been indicated that compared to adults, the pandemic hand long-term adverse consequence on children. The effect of the pandemic on children depended on various factors such as their development age, pre-existing mental health condition, and being an economically underprivileged family. All these factors contributed to the well-being of children during the pandemic because, from a healthcare perspective, lockdown measures played a significant role in mitigating the transmission of the disease but its effect on the individual life was not mitigated. For instance, different social statuses made the children from poor backgrounds during the pandemic lockdown manifest a more significant impact on social and emotional well-being. Social inequality among the children made most of them develop mental health challenges during the pandemic as they experienced the pandemic turning down their family's well-being. With a harsh economy, children from underprivileged families were faced with significant acute deprivation of nutrition and overall protection (Panda et al., 2021). The pandemic lockdown greatly affected the children from low-income families because it created a long-term negative impact on their development. Looking at how the pandemic lockdown affected the lives of children from low-income families, the government needs to ensure that each child is raised on the effective environment that to avoid the cases of prolonged mental issues among those children who come from less privileged families. For instance, in India, children were highly affected. The statistics indicate that with lockdown measures, more than 40 million children from low-income families were negatively impacted together with their families. This increased the number of street and poor children in the country due to lack of income sources, making them a high-risk population in the country that faced abuse and mental torture due to unfavorable economic and environmental circumstances.

A home acts as a source of security and safety not only because of shelter but also for healthy well-being. But for the poor and underprivileged, lack of shelter during the pandemic affected them mentally and physically. This is because restriction of movement due to lockdown increased poor children's exposure to exploitation and violence because of their families' vulnerability and inability to meet economic needs. One can argue that most countries in the world do not care about their people, which might sound true but taking measures such as lockdown was a significant way the government showed love and care to its people (Christoforidis et al., 3). The only thing that most governments fail is to ensure social support that will ensure each child gets access to food and quality healthcare. From the analysis of the pandemic measures, it is significant that it had a great impact on the children and their families; thus, it is crucial for every stakeholder during the time to take measures of ensuring that children are well engaged in order to mitigate the causes of mental health effect and finance decline among their families.

Conclusions

In conclusion, it is true that even though lockdown measures caused disruption of services that led to increased cases of depression, stress, and irregular physical activities among children, it had a positive impact on the lives of children. For instance, lockdown measures helped children bond up with their families because it created quality time for the family to be together. Also, due to the pandemic lockdown, technology was embraced as part of life. It provided social connectedness and remote learning opportunities that helped children cope with stress and isolation. Although most studies have shown the negative impact of Covid-19 on children's lives, it is also clear that it helped children engage in positive coping strategies that helped harness their psychological well-being during the pandemic.  

Work Cited

Christoforidis, Athanasios, et al. "Coronavirus lockdown effect on type 1 diabetes management on children wearing insulin pump equipped with continuous glucose monitoring system." Diabetes research and clinical practice 166 (2020): 1-6.

Fasano, María Victoria, et al. "Consequences of lockdown during COVID-19 pandemic in lifestyle and emotional state of children in Argentina." Frontiers in Pediatrics 9 (2021).

Fegert, Jörg M., et al. "Challenges and burden of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for child and adolescent mental health: a narrative review to highlight clinical and research needs in the acute phase and the long return to normality." Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health 14.1 (2020): 1-11.

Panda, Prateek Kumar, et al. "Psychological and behavioral impact of lockdown and quarantine measures for COVID-19 pandemic on children, adolescents and caregivers: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Journal of tropical pediatrics 67.1 (2021): fmaa122.

Singh, Shweta, et al. "Impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on mental health of children and adolescents: A narrative review with recommendations." Psychiatry research 293 (2020): 113429.

Singh, Shweta, et al. "Impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on mental health of children and adolescents: A narrative review with recommendations." Psychiatry research 293 (2020): 113429.

Viner, Russell, et al. "School Closures During Social Lockdown and Mental Health, Health Behaviors, and Well-being Among Children and Adolescents During the First COVID-19 Wave: A Systematic Review." JAMA pediatrics (2022).