How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected different areas of school-age children’s lives?

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most significant aspects in which both direct and family exposure to COVID-19 and measures taken to contain the pandemic may have had short- and long-term effects on adolescent well-being, health, and health behavior. This study aims to explore how COVID-19 pandemic exposure has affected different areas of adolescent life from their perspective.Methods: Data was gathered from general education and vocational schools during the HBSC national survey in Lithuania from April to June 2022. The study involved 6628 participants (50.3% boys, mean age 14.1 ± 2.24 years). The overall sample consisted of children from grades 5 to 11 in Lithuania. The self-report questionnaire was used to ask adolescents to report subjective perceptions of COVID-19 exposure impact (themselves or someone in a close family) on ten areas of their lives. The primary analysis was conducted using multivariate binary logistic regression. The results were adjusted by gender, age and family’s socioeconomic status.Results: Overall, 63.2% of adolescents reported being infected by COVID-19, and 74.9% had to self-isolate due to illness or contact with an infected person. Also, 81.6% indicated that the virus infected someone in their close family, and 13.5% had been treated in hospital. Most adolescents experienced neutral or negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in each area. 57.2% of adolescents reported negative results in 1–5 (up to half) of the areas of their lives, and 14.4% had negative impacts in 6–10 (most) areas. More than a third of adolescents indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted their lives in general, mental health, school performance, [Table 1], and physical activity. Multivariate logistic regression showed that COVID-19 exposure when some-one in a close family had been treated in a hospital was the highest risk factor for negative impact in most adolescent life areas (OR=1.70, p<0.001) and was identified as a significant predictor of negative impact in all ten adolescents areas except for physical activity (Table 1).Conclusions: These findings emphasize that different experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, both personal and family, may have had different effects on various areas of adolescents’ lives, especially when young people had to experience the hospitalisation of their close family members.