No evidence that children's social and emotional development worsened during the pandemic - SEED study

The research is part of the longitudinal study of early education and development (SEED), examining findings from Wave 5 of the study when children were between eight and ten years old.

This report found that the experiences of children and their families continued to be associated with children’s socio-emotional development between the ages of four and eight- to 10 years old.

Findings show that differences between the socio-emotional development of children from the most and least disadvantaged groups already evident at the age of four appear to have largely persisted to the age of eight, but don’t appear to have widened during that period, in spite of the pandemic.

The study was with children aged eight to 10 at different points during 2020, and looks at their experiences of the pandemic in terms of schooling, home life and health.

As a longitudinal study it compares children’s outcomes at the age of eight to 10 during the pandemic with their outcomes when they were four, which were collected during a previous wave of the research. 

It examines changes in children’s socio-emotional development since the age of four and explores how these relate to their educational experiences, early years home environment, parenting styles and specific experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lead author Svetlana Speight, research director at the Centre for Children & Families, National Centre for Social Research, said, ‘Many of the findings of this study reflect established and ongoing differences between children and families in their experiences of the pandemic.

‘Children with special educational needs and those from the most disadvantaged families were particularly hard hit, reporting greater disruption to schooling.

‘However, there was no compelling evidence during the pandemic that differences between the socio-emotional development of children from the most and least disadvantaged groups have widened between age four and ages eight-to 10. Instead, differences in outcomes present at age four appear to have largely persisted as children have grown older.’

The study focused on experiences of children and parents during the Covid-19 pandemic, including both at the time of data collection in September and October 2020 and retrospectively, during the period of restricted attendance in schools from April to May 2020 and in June to July 2020.

• Early education and development: Coronavirus (Covid-19) study can be downloaded here