Confinement, adults of whom we only see the top of the face, new health rules at school, and often overexposure to screens.
How are the children doing psychologically since the start of the Covid-19 health crisis?
This is the question that Public Health France wishes to answer, which launched a major national survey on the mental health of children aged 3 to 11 on Monday, May 2.
Data on the well-being of young children "are today missing or still very fragmented", indicates Public Health France in a press release.
The purpose of the survey will be to draw up "an overview of the well-being of children" and "to measure and describe the different dimensions of well-being and the difficulties encountered, and to identify the circumstances, determinants and impacts on children's quality of life.
[đź“„ Press Release] Public Health France presents the Enabee study, carried out with the support of the ministries @Sante_Gouv, @education_gouv and actors working with #children and young people.
➡️ #Enabee: First national study on the well-being of 3-11 year olds https://t.co/vLOGdgJF41 pic.twitter.com/nH6IpLV0dz
— SantépubliqueFrance (@SantePubliqueFr) April 26, 2022
The study, conducted on a sample of 30,000 children until school holidays in June, is unprecedented, and some 600 schools have been drawn to participate.
Until now, the subject was of more interest to adolescents and young adults.
However, the little ones have also suffered from the crisis, the confinement, the fear and the uncertainty.
Because unlike adolescents, who are often inclined to express their distress more loudly, the mental suffering of children occurs in silence.
"They are sponges, but they don't want to make waves," explains Marie-Claude Bossière, child psychiatrist.
This survey is therefore excellent news, she assures us, referring to the multiple alerts sent by professionals in the sector to deputies and senators so that the consequences of the health crisis on the mental health of children and the overload of children are taken into account. pediatric services.
Returning to school to 'find that no one is dead'
Very often, no cries, no seizures, but sleep disorders, eating disorders, anxiety disorders… A malaise that does not sleep, but is silent.
"What affected the children the most was the concern of the adults", explains the child psychiatrist.
Indeed, faced with the introduction of new rules (physical distancing, in particular), children adapt as long as adults explain them enough, and are not themselves excessively anxious.
“At the end of the first confinement, I remember a child who came home from school in Olympic form, talking to his mother as he had never talked about school, both in quantity and 'in quality', recalls Marie-Claude Bossière, referring to one of her young patients.
"He was happy, because he had simply seen that no one had died".
Overexposure to screens
Locked up for several weeks with their parents, the children absorbed the anxiety generated by the health situation, broadcast in some homes all day long through television screens.
“They saw images of coffins, heard the count of the number of dead, and all the information that revolved around the virus, ignorance, assumptions…”, develops the child psychiatrist.
"The children swallowed it all, and didn't talk too much, because they never wanted to add to their parents' worries."
Screens to watch the news, screens to follow school… And to calmly occupy free time while parents telecommute: always screens.
During confinement, children were overexposed to screens, and this inevitably had an impact on their mental health, says Marie-Claude Bossière, also a member of the CoSE collective (Collectif Surexposition Ecrans).
"The use of screens has been multiplied in an unreasonable way with very significant effects on the development of children", she explains, specifying that the relationship to the world and to others is built from the age of 2 years.
In 2019, a study by the Elfe cohort (of which Public Health France is a partner) already established that prolonged use of screens by children aged 2-3 years was associated with an increased risk of sleep, behavioral and early learning such as language.
Children, "a population that is not taken care of"
Concern among adults, anxiety-provoking images, isolation, screens... Consultation offices have seen an influx of many children in a state of ill-being from 2020.
For others, it manifests itself in learning delays at school, but whatever the form, the doctors describe an unprecedented situation of deep distress.
"The health crisis has impacted the mental health of the youngest and has shown the need for action for care and prevention based on robust data. For this, it is essential to have indicators", explains Geneviève Chêne, Director General of Public Health France, in the press release.
"First to understand their possible difficulties and be able to prevent them as early as possible. Then to put in place actions to encourage health-promoting behaviors before entering adolescence."
Press release - Enabee survey
In order to evaluate as exhaustively as possible the factors that can affect the mental health of children, the study will question, using questionnaires, children, their parents and teachers.
After agreement of participation, the parents, or adults living with the child, will be asked to answer a questionnaire lasting thirty minutes, on the Internet or by telephone.
From CP (and up to CM2 class), investigators authorized by the Ipsos institute, responsible for operational implementation, will come to the classes for a session of approximately one and a half hours, in order to support the children and their teachers.
Students will have to answer, on a tablet, a self-questionnaire adapted to their age.
For kindergarten students, parents and teachers will be interviewed.
The first results for mainland France are expected by the end of 2022 and a roll-out is planned for 2023 in the overseas departments and regions.
If this survey – called Enabee (national survey on the well-being of children) – is well received by professionals, Marie-Claude Bossière nevertheless cannot hide a certain bitterness.
"In France, we tend to want figures and to multiply accounting studies, but we could have ensured that the qualitative dimension of the testimony of early childhood professionals is better listened to and valued", she regrets.
"Childhood is a population that is not taken care of in France".
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