Background:The mental health consequences of school closure, social isolation, increased financial and emotional stress, and greater exposure to family conflicts are likely to be pronounced for primary school children who are known to be vulnerable. Data from prior to the pandemic are needed to provide robust assessments of the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable children.
Method:The present study capitalises on an ongoing study of primary school children (4-8 years) identified as 'at-risk' for mental health problems by teachers.We collected mental health and socio-economic data prior to the pandemic and reassessed this cohort (n = 142) via researcher-led video calls during the pandemic to evaluate the social and emotional impacts of COVID-19 for these families.Results: Mental health problems, particularly anxiety, increased significantly in these children. Parental mental health difficulties (anxiety and depression) were also prevalent. There were higher reports of financial stress during lockdown amongst low-income families previously identified as living in poverty, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial strain was found to indirectly predict increases in child mental health problems through parental mental health.
Conclusion:These findings show that the pandemic exacerbated mental health problems in already vulnerable children. These negative outcomes were explained by financial stress (e.g., lost employment, loss of income and inability to pay bills), which was negatively linked to parental mental health.
K E Y W O R D Sanxiety, child mental health, COVID-19, parent mental health, povertyThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cognition remained stable in children with secondary dystonia following DBS surgery, with some improvements noted in a domain of perceptual reasoning. Further research with a larger sample is necessary to further explore this, in particular to further subdivide this group to account for its heterogeneity. This preliminary data has potentially positive implications for the impact of DBS on cognitive functioning within the childhood secondary dystonia population.
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