Focus of this report
This report provides longitudinal data from 221 parents/carers, living in North West England, who took part in both the baseline questionnaire and the first follow up questionnaire. These participants completed the baseline questionnaire between 17/04/2020 and 01/07/2020. Each participant completed the follow up questionnaire approximately one month after having completed their baseline questionnaires.
In this report, we examined changes in pre-schoolers’ emotional, behavioural and restless/attentional difficulties over a one-month period as lockdown has progressed.
This was examined for the following specific groups:
- The whole sample
- Children by gender
- High- and low-income households
- Parent working status (employed or not employed)
- Family ethnicity (White British or other ethnicities)
Key findings
- Parents/carers reported that their children’s emotional, behavioural and restless/attentional problems did not increase or decrease significantly over the one-month period.
- The levels of behavioural and attentional difficulties were consistently higher for children in lower income households compared to those in higher income households.
- The levels of behavioural and attentional difficulties were consistently higher for boys than girls.
- The levels of emotional difficulties were consistently higher for children whose parents reported to be unemployed compared to those who were employed.
- At a group level, the changes reported were subtle and suggest that young children’s emotional, behavioural, and attentional problems were relatively stable during the one-month period.