School closures and children’s emotional and behaviour difficulties

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Dr Jo Blanden

School closures have been one of the most dramatic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on society. Concerns about the impact of school closures on children’s learning were raised early on in the pandemic and work continues to mitigate lost learning. There is also widespread concern about the detrimental impact of the pandemic on children’s mental wellbeing, but there are likely to be a number of mechanisms at work here, including parents’ employment situation, anxiety about relatives’ health and social isolation. We specifically examine the role of school closures in England on the emotional and behavioural wellbeing of children aged 5-11, as measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in the UK Household Longitudinal Study.