School closures and mental health among children and adolescents during COVID-19
Citation: Viner R, Russell S, Saulle R, et al. School closures during social lockdown and mental health, health behaviors, and well-being among children and adolescents during the first COVID-19 wave: a systematic review. JAMA Pediatrics. 2022;176(4):400-409.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Nothing noted.
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for articles about the impact of school closures on the health and well-being of children and adolescents aged 19 years or younger during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (February-June, 2020). They restricted their searches to articles published in English before September 2020. The authors included 36 studies of 79,781 children and adolescents from 11 countries.
What was found:The study found an adverse impact on the health and well-being of children and adolescents. While the effect of school closures could not be separated from other factors during the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors stated that school closures were likely to have contributed to the deterioration of mental health and well-being among children and adolescents. School closures may have harmed mental health as a consequence of decreased social contact with peers and teachers.
Implications: The authors indicated that the adverse psychological consequences may be long-term, particularly among those who experienced lock-downs during the pandemic.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of place of residence and socioeconomic status.
This summary was prepared by Joly Ghanawi, checked by Grace Meng, and finalized by William Summerskill.