Coronavirus: Young children of working parents improved their attention during lockdown, study reveals

Researchers on the Co-Spyce study (Covid-19 Supporting Parents and Young Children during Epidemics) a collaboration between the Universities of Reading, Oxford and Southampton, asked 972 families with children aged two to five to monitor changes in their emotions, disobedience, attention span and other behaviours over a one-month period between April and July.

Psychologists found that despite the pressures placed on families during lockdown, there has been a ‘small but significant’ improvement in the behaviour and attention of children with working parents.

However, across the entire participant population – children of working and non-working parents – the study found that boys showed significant improvements in their behaviour and attention, while girls did not.

Professor Helen Dodd, a child psychologist at the University of Reading, said, ‘We might have expected to see increases in behaviour and attention problems in young children during lockdown because of changes in routine and missing friends and family.

‘These results suggest that this hasn’t been the case, at least for the families taking part in the Co-spyce study. It is reassuring as well to see that, overall, emotional problems have not increased in young children during the one month follow-up period.’

The first report revealed that many families were finding it difficult to keep their children entertained, particularly while having to juggle family time and home schooling with the challenges of working from home.

Ms Dodd added, ‘It is therefore surprising, perhaps, that the children who showed the biggest reduction in attention and behaviour problems were those with working parents or carers. We hear a lot about the potential negative impact the lockdown may have had on young children while they could not go to school or nursery, but this study shows that, at least in some respects, things may not have been as bad as expected.’

The study also found:

• On average, children showed improvements in their attention, but very little change in their emotions or behaviour.
• There was very little difference between children in households with higher and lower incomes, and between those in families of different ethnicities.
• Around 15 per cent of the parents/carers in the sample reported that they were unemployed, and this group did not report a reduction in their child's behaviour or attention problems.

Professor Dodd said, ‘The results suggest children are more resilient and able to cope during times of raised anxiety than sometimes we give them credit for. The small improvements we see in the Co-spyce children may have happened for a number of reasons. One possible explanation is that children benefited from having more time at home with their parents and carers. Even when it doesn’t feel like "quality time" to the parents, it may benefit their children.’

She added, ‘An alternative explanation is that many of the daily pressures put on young children to conform to adult-led schedules were removed during lockdown, leading to fewer perceived behavioural and attention problems. Any parent who has tried to get a young child into their shoes and out of the door on time in the morning will know this is a challenging point in the day! This is a reminder of the many educational, health and economic benefits for the UK that could flow from having improved policies around shared parental leave, flexible working and childcare.’

A total of 972 parents and carers with children aged two to five years filled out two questionnaires between April and July 2020: one assessing their children’s general behaviour as a starting point, and then another a month later reporting any changes witnessed to this behaviour.

The behavioural changes surveyed were split into three categories: emotional (worried, afraid, clingy); behavioural (disobedience, tantrums, fighting, lying), and restless/attentional (lack of attention, low attention span, hyperactivity, fidgeting).

Each child surveyed was given a score out of 10 for each scale, based on the responses – a higher score indicating greater difficulties.

More information

• Parents and carers of two - to-16 year-olds can still take part here