Forecasting the Long-Term Effects of the Pandemic on Children: Towards a COVID-Generation

Abstract

This study focuses on mapping the existing effects of the pandemic and the measures taken to address it on the mental health of children in order to investigate the long-term consequences that it is expected to have. For infants, preschool, school and adolescent children it seems that intense stress develops for different reasons. As adults these children may experience an increased incidence of anxiety, depressive, obsessive–compulsive and personality disorders, while they are also expected to develop a strong External Locus of Control, low Faith in the Just World and low happiness. At the same time, an absence of distinction within the limits of the physical and digital world is expected. As for children with special educational needs, they are particularly affected due to the pandemic, as early diagnosis and the development of interventions to improve their educational and psychosocial progress are hampered and this might have negative long-term effects on their development. In overall, these negative effects and related experiences seem to be homogeneous across humanity for those who are currently minors and are expected to lead to the view of an autonomous generation, the COVID-generation.

Screen Exposure and Child Development: A Contextual Analysis of Pandemic

“…During a pandemic, an infant was prohibited from touching objects and experimenting with the world, they had to quarantine. Moreover, as a mask was made compulsory, infants could not observe people especially their facial expressions which acted as a barrier to emotional and linguistic development (Pelekasis, 2021). Liu et al (2020) explained that children under 7 who are growing up in a pandemic have a "magical thinking" due to transductive and egocentric approach, they believe that they have a control on the environment and might assume that their bad behavior caused their parents to get sick or suffer instead of the diseases causing it.…”