Severity of Anxiety During COVID-19 Outbreak and Its Relationship with self-related skills of Executive Functions in Children

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p><jats:bold>Background:</jats:bold> Some children experience a greater deal of anxiety during the outbreak of COVID-19. Behavioral dimensions of executive function appear to be linked to situational anxiety experience. Therefore, the primary aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between self-related skills of executive functions before the outbreak of COVID-19 and the level of physical and mental anxiety in children during this pandemic. Also, the secondary goal of this study is to predict the level of anxiety based on self-related skills of executive functions. <jats:bold>Methods</jats:bold>: Information were obtained from Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale (BDEFS), which was collected from 300 healthy children over two months before the COVID-19 outbreak. The children anxiety was measured based on parent’s reposes to an online anxiety scale when the disease outbreak. <jats:bold>Results</jats:bold>: The results showed that the total score of self-related skills of executive functions was negatively and significantly related to the anxiety level (r =- .53). In general, the results also demonstrated that self-related skills of executive functions can predict 28% of anxiety. The subscales of self-management (p&lt;0.015, t= 5.56), self-regulation (p&lt;0.011, t= 6.37), self-restraint (p&lt;0.035, t = 4.29) and emotional self-organization (p &lt;0.042, p=0.222) predicted coronavirus anxiety, except self-motivation (p&lt;0.05, p = 0.894). <jats:bold>Conclusions</jats:bold>: Given that most subscales of executive function predict anxiety tied to critical situations such as the prevalence of coronavirus, it seems that greater attentions should be allocated to the fostering and development of children's executive functions by teaching such skills via playing.</jats:p>