Pandemic School Closures Were Especially Hard on the Mental Health of Younger, More Vulnerable Children

August 18, 2023

(Science) – As the consequences of those decisions continue to reverberate, scientists have tried to disentangle the mental health fallout caused by school closures from the general tumult of the pandemic. Now, researchers in Germany have tackled the question by combining data on how long different groups of students were out of school with responses to an ongoing mental health survey. The results, published today in Science Advances, show that for German children between the ages of 11 and 17, additional weeks of home schooling in the early months of the pandemic correlated with worsening mental health measures, especially for younger children, boys, and children with limited living space. (Read More)