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.
Children at high risk of developing criminal behaviour show impaired affective empathy but unimpaired social attention and cognitive empathy. The implications for early identification and intervention studies with antisocial children are discussed.
The use of intranasal oxytocin (OT) in research has become increasingly important over the past decade. Although researchers have acknowledged a need for further investigation of the physiological effects of intranasal administration, few studies have actually done so. In the present double-blind cross-over study we investigated the longevity of a single 24 IU dose of intranasal OT measured in saliva in 40 healthy adult males. Salivary OT concentrations were significantly higher in the OT condition, compared to placebo. This significant difference lasted until the end of testing, approximately 108 minutes after administration, and peaked at 30 minutes. Results showed significant individual differences in response to intranasal OT administration. To our knowledge this is the largest and first all-male within-subjects design study to demonstrate the impact of intranasal OT on salivary OT concentrations. The results are consistent with previous research in suggesting that salivary OT is a valid matrix for OT measurement. The results also suggest that the post-administration ‘wait-time’ prior to starting experimental tasks could be reduced to 30 minutes, from the 45 minutes typically used, thereby enabling testing during peak OT concentrations. Further research is needed to ascertain whether OT concentrations after intranasal administration follow similar patterns in females, and different age groups.
Maternal reflective functioning (RF) has been associated with quality of parent-child interactions and child development. This study investigated whether prenatal RF predicted the development of infant physical aggression and whether maternal sensitivity and/or intrusiveness mediated or moderated this association. The sample consisted of 96 first-time mothers (M = 22.57 years, SD = 2.13) and their infants (54 % male). Prenatal RF was measured with an interview, maternal behavior was observed during free play at 6 months post-partum, and infant physical aggression was assessed at 6, 12, and 20 months using maternal reports. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that relatively poor prenatal RF was related to relatively high infant physical aggression. These associations were moderated by maternal intrusiveness, with significant differences in physical aggression between RF-groups reportedly only in the absence of intrusiveness. Generally, mothers reported an increase in physical aggression between 6 and 12 months, except when they had both low RF-skills and were relatively less sensitive. It is concluded that prenatal RF is associated with (development of) infant physical aggression, and may be targeted in intervention programs aimed at reducing early physical aggression. Less adequate parenting, however, may counteract the beneficial effects of good RF, or obscure insight into children’s behavioral development.
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