A survey, Co-SPACE (COVID-19 Supporting Parents, Adolescents, and Children in Epidemics), launched by experts at the University of Oxford, aims to track children and young people’s mental health throughout the Covid-19 crisis.
Results from the first 500 participants, published earlier this month, found that:
- 72 per cent of parents and carers felt they would benefit from advice, support or help
- 42 per cent around managing their child’s emotions
- 34 per cent with their child’s educational demands, and
- 29 per cent with their child coming out of self-isolation.
Parents of children with special educational needs and neurodevelopmental disorders (SEN/ND) would also like support around managing their child’s behaviour. And an overwhelming 80 percent of those who were previously receiving support from services have had this stopped or postponed during the pandemic.
Dr Helen Dodd, of the University of Reading, has recently been recruited to add a new strand to the international study, aimed at tracking the mental health of two- to four-year-olds.
She told Nursery World, ‘The aim is to work out what children and families are struggling with the most and what help they might need. We anticipate that for some, mental health factors such as social anxiety are slightly improving while others are being significantly affected by the uncertainty of the world outside.
'We are looking to see whether pre-school children are feeling the impact too, and we already know that parents are calling for support around emotional well-being, education and what is going to help as social isolation measures are lifted. We will also be looking at whether there is a different picture for children with special educational needs.’
Professor Cathy Creswell, of the departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology, at the University of Oxford, said, ‘Research has provided valuable information about how parents and carers can support their children’s mental health in general. However, at this point, we know very little about what might be most effective in the current context of Covid-19.
'We hope to have more than 10,000 parents and carers across the UK complete the new online survey. Their responses will help us really understand how families are coping and what support could make all the difference to children, young people and their families at this time.’
Parents and carers are invited to complete an online longitudinal weekly questionnaire for a month.
Participants will also be asked to complete some shorter follow-up surveys (around 10 minutes each) each month while social isolation is taking place, a month after schools have re-opened, and/or when there are major changes in Government advice around isolation.
The first survey will take about 15-20 minutes, and subsequent surveys about 10 minutes. It includes questions about family life and relationships, overall health and well-being, parenting, psychological symptoms and how they and their child are coping during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Regular summaries of key findings will be made available via the www.emergingminds.org.uk research network.
More information
Co-Space Study: Supporting parents, adolescents and children during epidemics
The survey for parents of two-to four-year-olds is available at
www.cospyce.org/survey
