Inequalities in children's mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from the UK Household Longitudinal Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There are concerns that child mental health inequalities may have widened during the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated whether child mental health inequalities changed in 2020/2021 compared with prepandemic.

Methods

We analysed 16 361 observations from 9272 children in the population representative UK Household Longitudinal Study. Child mental health was measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at ages 5 and 8 years in annual surveys 2011-2019, and at ages 5-11 years in July 2020, September 2020 and March 2021. Inequalities in cross-sectional SDQ scores among 5 and 8 year olds, before and during the pandemic, were modelled using linear regression. Additionally, interactions between time (before/during pandemic) and: sex, ethnicity, family

SUBMITTER: Miall N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10646900 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature