Pandemic Effects on Babies and Teens

Here I want to summarize two studies of effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first is described by Claire McCarthy in the Harvard Gazette on January 21, 2022. They begin by noting the crucial role of experiences during the first three years of an infant’s life for brain growth and development. They add that babies born during the pandemic may sustain lifelong damage. Neural connections are built by exchanges – touch, language, smiles, and simple play exchanges. We know that stressors interfere with parents’ and caregivers’ capacities to foster neural connections.

The second study by Wang et al. (2022) is published in the Journal of Family Psychology. In this case, the authors investigated the impact of parents’ work-life conflict on adolescents’ academic engagement and mental health as well as family processes. The study, conducted in Beijing in 2020, found close to 25% of parents reporting work-life conflict. Greater work-life conflict related indirectly to poorer academic achievement and mental health in their middle school children via parental mental health difficulties and such parenting behaviors as control, autonomy granting, and parental involvement. Not surprisingly, parental involvement and autonomy granting predicting better engagement and “covitality” – defined as the co-occurrence of positive traits and positive mental health. Parental control predicted youth mental health difficulties.

Both of these studies illustrate the need for gathering more nuanced information about parents’ and children’s experiences since the pandemic.