{"id":181622,"date":"2022-02-11T07:14:26","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T12:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=181622"},"modified":"2022-02-11T07:50:46","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T12:50:46","slug":"pandemic-related-school-closings-likely-to-have-far-reaching-effects-on-child-well-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/02\/pandemic-related-school-closings-likely-to-have-far-reaching-effects-on-child-well-being\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandemic-Related School Closings Likely to Have Far-Reaching Effects on Child Well-Being"},"content":{"rendered":"

A global analysis has found that kids whose schools closed to stop the spread of various waves of the coronavirus\u00a0lost educational progress and are at increased risk of dropping out<\/a>\u00a0of school. As a result, the study says, they will\u00a0earn less money from work over their lifetimes<\/a>\u00a0than they would have if schools had remained open.<\/p>\n

Educational\u00a0researchers like me<\/a>\u00a0know these students will feel the\u00a0effects of pandemic-related school closures<\/a>\u00a0for many years to come. Here are four other ways the closings have affected students\u2019 well-being for the long term.<\/p>\n

Academic Progress<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the end of the 2020-2021 school year, most students were about\u00a0four to five months behind<\/a>\u00a0where they should have been in math and reading, according to a July 2021 report by McKinsey and Co., a global management consulting firm.<\/p>\n

When the researchers looked at the data from fall 2021, though, they found\u00a0students attending majority-white schools are catching up<\/a>. But students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds \u2013 including those attending majority-Black or low-income schools \u2013 are falling further behind. As a result, students attending majority-Black schools are now estimated to be a full year behind those attending majority-white schools.<\/p>\n

Differences also can vary by grade level. High schools have been\u00a0closed more total days<\/a>\u00a0than elementary schools. According to a recent news report,\u00a02021 graduation rates dipped<\/a>\u00a0across the country, and some education leaders fear future graduating classes may be hit even harder. Schools have scrambled to provide options such as credit recovery to boost graduation rates, leaving concerns about the quality of learning.<\/p>\n

College and university leaders have been\u00a0preparing<\/a>\u00a0for first-year students with less knowledge, weaker study habits and more difficulty concentrating than new college arrivals in past years.<\/p>\n

Social-Emotional Development<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even early in the pandemic,\u00a0school closings were harming students\u2019 social and emotional well-being<\/a>, according to a review of 36 studies across 11 countries including the U.S. By summer 2021,\u00a0teachers and administrators in the U.S.<\/a>\u00a0said students felt more emotional distress, disengagement, depression, anxiety and loneliness than in previous years.<\/p>\n

When schools resumed in fall 2021, large numbers of children in the U.S. had\u00a0lost a primary caregiver<\/a>\u00a0over the previous year to COVID-19. A colleague and I raised concerns about the\u00a0anxiety and grief<\/a>\u00a0those students would likely feel.<\/p>\n

In addition,\u00a028% of all parents<\/a>\u00a0of children in grades K-12 are \u201cvery concerned\u201d or \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about their child\u2019s mental health and social and emotional well-being. That\u2019s down from a high of 35% in spring 2021, but is still 7 percentage points higher than before the pandemic. Parents of Black and Hispanic students are 5 percentage points more likely to be worried than parents of white students.<\/p>\n

Schools and organizations have focused resources on supporting students\u2019 social, emotional and mental health. The\u00a0U.S. Department of Education<\/a>, for example, recommends, based on research, that teachers integrate lessons around compassion and courage into classroom activities, and that schools establish wellness teams to help students.<\/p>\n

States have said they plan to address these needs with\u00a0federal funds meant to help schools respond to the pandemic<\/a>. In\u00a0Connecticut<\/a>, for example, school districts will hire additional mental health support staff, offer social-emotional programs and partner with local agencies to increase access to supports.<\/p>\n

Behavioral Habits<\/strong><\/p>\n

The return to in-person learning has been accompanied by school leaders\u2019\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0of increasing student misbehavior and threats of violence. These increases were more likely to be reported in larger districts and where most students had engaged in remote or hybrid learning \u2013 rather than in-person instruction \u2013 during the prior school year.<\/p>\n

Viral social media \u201cchallenges\u201d \u2013 like memes on TikTok suggesting students \u201csmack a staff member<\/a>\u201d or skip school on a particular day \u2013 certainly aren\u2019t helping educators provide safe and supportive environments.<\/p>\n

Parents\u2019 distress is also affecting their children. Students whose parents are depressed, anxious, lonely and exhausted are\u00a0more likely to misbehave in school<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and\u00a0that connection grew stronger<\/a>\u00a0during lockdown periods when schools were closed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, news reports show students are\u00a0missing more school<\/a>\u00a0than they were before the pandemic, with more kids out for more than 15 days of a school year. Given\u00a0links<\/a>\u00a0between chronic absenteeism and increased high school dropout rates,\u00a0researchers warn<\/a>\u00a0this increase in missed school could lead between 1.7 million and 3.3 million students in eighth through 12th grade to not graduate on time.<\/p>\n

Physical Health<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adults have suffered\u00a0hair loss, sore eyes, irritable bowels and skin flare-ups<\/a>\u00a0as a result of the pandemic. One study found that Chinese preschool children whose schools closed during the pandemic\u00a0were shorter than preschoolers<\/a>\u00a0in previous years, though the researchers did not observe noteworthy differences in weight change.<\/p>\n

Schools can be a primary place for children to access physical activity and healthy food. Amid school closures, researchers are exploring the effects of losing out on these benefits. During lockdowns in Italy,\u00a0children with obesity engaged in less physical activity<\/a>, slept and used screens more and increased their consumption of potato chips and sugary drinks.<\/p>\n

In the U.S.,\u00a01 in 4 families<\/a>\u00a0with school-age children don\u2019t have reliable access to food. Abrupt school closures cut off\u00a0more than 30 million children<\/a>\u00a0from free and reduced-price lunches and breakfasts delivered at school.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees school food programs, provided waivers to\u00a0let schools provide meals<\/a>\u00a0in ways that fit their students\u2019 needs. In Connecticut, for example, researchers found that letting families know about wider availability and pickup sites for to-go school meals\u00a0boosted the number of students who received food<\/a>\u00a0during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Time will tell if the costs of school closings will be\u00a0worth the benefits<\/a>. These early indicators show that decisions are not as simple as reducing the physical health risks of COVID-19. A full assessment would consider the effects across all aspects of child well-being, including how diverse populations are affected.<\/p>\n

Connection, collaboration and positive interaction are fundamental to\u00a0healthy childhood<\/a>\u00a0growth and development. Working together, schools, families and communities can\u00a0assess and address every child\u2019s needs<\/a>\u00a0to reduce the lasting effects of school closings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Originally published in The Conversation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From falling graduation rates to more students going without healthy food, a range of potential impacts are being examined<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":181623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2213,1855,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-181622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-neag","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 17:54:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181625,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181622\/revisions\/181625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/181623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181622"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=181622"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=181622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}