Researcher: “Positive for Swedish children that schools have been open”

Children and young adults are at greater risk of developing depression and anxiety after prolonged periods of isolation and loneliness, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.  

The care needs to be prepared that the need for care will increase when we reopen society, the authors of the study write. 

But in Sweden, elementary schools have remained open, something that Maria Loades, a psychologist at Bath University and author of the study, believes has had a positive effect.  

- The mental health of Swedish children may not be as affected by corona pandemic as children in other countries, says Maria Loades.  

Lisa Thorell, associate professor of developmental psychology at Karolinska Institutet agrees.  

- I think it has had a great positive effect that we have had the schools for younger students open. For some children, it doesn't really matter. But we know through contacts with researchers in other countries that in many families with younger children it has been very difficult to carry out teaching from home. 

Lisa Thorell, together with researcher Lotta Borg Skoglund, has initiated a large international survey study aimed at parents of children who have received distance education during the corona pandemic. 

Ten countries are included in the study, including Sweden, Germany, China and Brazil. In the survey, parents had to estimate what effect home teaching and isolation had on their children. 

The investigation is still ongoing and approximately 10,000 responses will be received from the participating countries. So far, 1600 responses have been collected in Sweden. 

A preliminary finding is that parents in Germany have experienced homeschooling as much more negative for the child than parents in Sweden, which may be because the parents who participated in the study in Sweden have children attending high school.  

- It's a difference between putting a high school athlete and an eight-year-old in front of the computer, says Lisa Thorell.  

They have also seen that children with learning disabilities are more severely affected by distance education and many of the children who normally receive extra support in school do not seem to receive it remotely.  

There are probably also differences between how children are affected by not being able to meet their friends at school   

- Those who have a good contact network will continue to meet friends. But those who do not have the contact networks have a harder time picking up the phone and calling. They will not meet their friends as they normally would at school, which may make them feel more alone, says Thorell.  

The results of the large survey will be ready by the end of June. There is another opportunity for one week for parents who have a child / youth who have received homeschooling to participate in the study.