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Children's mental and behavioral health, schooling, and socioeconomic characteristics during school closure in France due to COVID-19: the SAPRIS project

ABSTRACT: COVID-19 limitation strategies have led to widespread school closures around the world. The present study reports children’s mental health and associated factors during the COVID-19 school closure in France in the spring of 2020. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from the SAPRIS project set up during the COVID-19 pandemic in France. Using multinomial logistic regression models, we estimated associations between children’s mental health, children’s health behaviors, schooling, and socioeconomic characteristics of the children’s families. The sample consisted of 5702 children aged 8–9 years, including 50.2% girls. In multivariate logistic regression models, children’s sleeping difficulties were associated with children’s abnormal symptoms of both hyperactivity-inattention (adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR) 2.05; 95% Confidence Interval 1.70–2.47) and emotional symptoms (aOR 5.34; 95% CI 4.16–6.86). Factors specifically associated with abnormal hyperactivity/inattention were: male sex (aOR 2.29; 95% CI 1.90–2.76), access to specialized care prior to the pandemic and its suspension during school closure (aOR 1.51; 95% CI 1.21–1.88), abnormal emotional symptoms (aOR 4.06; 95% CI 3.11–5.29), being unschooled or schooled with assistance before lockdown (aOR 2.13; 95% CI 1.43–3.17), and tutoring with difficulties or absence of a tutor (aOR 3.25; 95% CI 2.64–3.99; aOR 2.47; 95% CI 1.48–4.11, respectively). Factors associated with children’s emotional symptoms were the following: being born pre-term (aOR 1.34; 95% CI 1.03–1.73), COVID-19 cases among household members (aOR 1.72; 95% CI 1.08–2.73), abnormal symptoms of hyperactivity/inattention (aOR 4.18; 95% CI 3.27–5.34) and modest income (aOR 1.45; 95% CI 1.07–1.96; aOR 1.36; 95% CI 1.01–1.84). Multiple characteristics were associated with elevated levels of symptoms of hyperactivity-inattention and emotional symptoms in children during the period of school closure due to COVID-19. Further studies are needed to help policymakers to balance the pros and cons of closing schools, taking into consideration the educational and psychological consequences for children.

SUBMITTER: Monnier M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8599695 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Prior research has identified that school absences harm children's academic achievement. However, this literature is focused on brief periods or single school years and does not consistently account for the dynamic nature of absences across multiple school years. This study examined dynamic trajectories of children's authorised and unauthorised absences throughout their compulsory school career in England. It investigated the consequences of these absence trajectories for children's achievement at the end of compulsory schooling. We analyse linked administrative data on children's absences and achievement from the National Pupil Database and survey data from the Millennium Cohort Study for a representative sample of children born in 2000/2001 in England (N = 7218). We used k-means clustering for longitudinal data to identify joint authorised-unauthorised absence trajectories throughout compulsory schooling and a regression-with-residuals approach to examine the link between absence trajectories and achievement. We identified five distinct absence trajectories: (1) 'Consistently Low Absences', (2) 'Consistently Moderate Authorised Absences', (3) 'Moderately Increasing Unauthorised Absences', (4) 'Strongly Increasing Unauthorised Absences', and (5) 'Strongly Increasing Authorised Absences'. We found substantial differences between trajectory groups in GCSE achievement, even when accounting for significant risk factors of school absences. Compared to 'Consistently Low Absences', 'Strongly Increasing Unauthorised Absences' reduced achievement by -1.23 to -1.48 standard deviations, while 'Strongly Increasing Authorised Absences' reduced achievement by -0.72 to -1.00 SD for our continuous outcomes. 'Moderately Increasing Unauthorised Absences' (-0.61 to -0.70 SD) and 'Consistently Moderate Authorised Absences' (-0.13 to -0.21 SD) also negatively affected achievement compared to 'Consistently Low Absences'. Our research underscores the critical importance of examining entire trajectories of absenteeism and differentiating between types of absences to fully grasp their associations with academic outcomes and design targeted interventions accordingly.

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Children's mental and behavioral health, schooling, and socioeconomic characteristics during school closure in France due to COVID-19: the SAPRIS project

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