The course of children's mental health symptoms during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with increases in child mental health problems, but the persistence of these changes in the post-pandemic era remains uncertain. Additionally, it is unclear whether changes in mental health problems during the pandemic exceed the anticipated increases as children age. This study controls for the linear effect of age in 1399 children, investigating the course of child-reported anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and inattention symptoms during and after the pandemic, and identifies risk and protective factors that predict these mental health trajectories.

Perceived Parental Distraction by Technology and Mental Health Among Emerging Adolescents.

Importance: The digital phenomenon termed technoference refers to interruptions in routine social interactions due to technology use. Technoference may negatively affect parents' attention to cues necessary for supporting children's mental health.

Objective: To explore whether there are directional prospective associations between perceived parental technoference and emerging adolescents' mental health symptoms (anxiety, depression, inattention, and hyperactivity).

Associations Between Changes in 24-Hour Movement Behaviors in Children and Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Mediation-Based Meta-Analysis.

Background: Although 24-hour movement behaviors are known to be interconnected, limited knowledge exists about whether change in one behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic (eg, increased screen time) was associated with change in another (eg, reduced physical activity or sleep). This review estimates mediational associations between changes in children's physical activity, screen time, and sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We included studies published between January 1, 2020 and June 27, 2022, in the PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science databases.

Dynamic Relations Between Psychological Resilience and Post-Concussion Symptoms in Children With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Versus Orthopedic Injury: An A-CAP Study.

Higher psychological resilience is correlated with less severe post-concussion symptoms (PCS) after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in children, but the directional nature of this relationship remains uncertain. Although traditionally regarded as a stable, trait-like construct, resilience may be malleable and potentially influenced by mTBI and post-concussive symptoms. The current study sought to examine the stability of resilience, elucidate the dynamic nature of the resilience-PCS relation, and determine whether resilience-symptom associations are specific to mTBI or applicable to traumatic injury in general.

Changes and predictors of maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Longitudinal changes in maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms and predictors of symptom variation among a group of middle-to-upper income Canadian women (n = 2152) were examined prior to the pandemic (2017-2019) and at three pandemic timepoints (May-July 2020, March-April 2021, November-December 2021). Mean maternal depression and anxiety scores were elevated throughout the pandemic. Pre-pandemic depressive symptoms were associated with greater increases in depressive symptoms.

Changes in Depression and Anxiety Among Children and Adolescents From Before to During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: There is a growing body of high-quality cohort-based research that has examined changes in child and adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic vs before the pandemic. Some studies have found that child and adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms have increased, while others have found these symptoms to have remained stable or decreased.

Objective: To synthesize the available longitudinal cohort-based research evidence to estimate the direction and magnitude of changes in depression and anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents assessed before and during the pandemic.

The Impact of Early and Recent Life Stress on Trajectories of Inflammatory Biomarkers in a Diverse Sample of Adolescents.

Elevated inflammatory activity is one possible pathway through which exposure to childhood adversity engenders risk for physical and psychiatric illnesses. Limited research has investigated the compounding effects of childhood and adolescent stress exposure on changes in circulating levels of inflammatory biomarkers. This study assessed whether childhood adversity interacted with chronic or acute stress during adolescence to affect the temporal trajectories of five inflammatory biomarkers across at least three blood draws in a diverse sample of adolescents (N = 134; observations = 462).

Assessment of Changes in Child and Adolescent Screen Time During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: To limit the spread of COVID-19, numerous restrictions were imposed on youths, including school closures, isolation requirements, social distancing, and cancelation of extracurricular activities, which independently or collectively may have shifted screen time patterns.

Objective: To estimate changes in the duration, content, and context of screen time of children and adolescents by comparing estimates taken before the pandemic with those taken during the pandemic and to determine when and for whom screen time has increased the most.

Data Sources: Electronic databases were searched between January 1, 2020, and March 5, 2022, including MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials.

Association of Screen Time With Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior Problems in Children 12 Years or Younger: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: Currently, there is a lack of consensus in the literature on the association between screen time (eg, television, video games) and children's behavior problems.

Objective: To assess the association between the duration of screen time and externalizing and internalizing behavior problems among children 12 years or younger.

Data Sources: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO databases were searched for articles published from January 1960 to May 2021.

Global Prevalence of Meeting Screen Time Guidelines Among Children 5 Years and Younger: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: Pediatric guidelines suggest that infants younger than 2 years avoid screen time altogether, while children aged 2 to 5 years receive no more than 1 hour per day. Although these guidelines have been adopted around the world, substantial variability exists in adherence to the guidelines, and precise estimates are needed to inform public health and policy initiatives.

Objective: To derive the pooled prevalence via meta-analytic methods of children younger than 2 years and children aged 2 to 5 years who are meeting guidelines about screen time.

Screen Time as a Mechanism Through Which Cumulative Risk is Related to Child Socioemotional and Developmental Outcomes in Early Childhood.

Socio-demographic risks are associated with higher child screen time and higher screen time is associated with poor socioemotional and developmental health. Existing studies have not examined children's screen time as a mechanism through which distal risks may be associated with child outcomes. In the current study, we examined whether two proximal factors, screen time and parenting quality, mediate the relation between distal cumulative risk and child outcomes.

Predictors of Preadolescent Children's Recreational Screen Time Duration During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: Research suggests that children's screen use during the COVID-19 pandemic has doubled. There is a need to understand factors associated with increased use to more adequately inform COVID-19 pandemic recovery efforts aimed at promoting healthy device habits. The objective of this multi-informant study of children aged 9 to 11 years was to examine whether duration of screen use during the COVID-19 pandemic was predicted by sociodemographic factors (e.

Tweens are not teens: the problem of amalgamating broad age groups when making pandemic recommendations.

Demarcating childhood into two distinct and broad 10-year age bands of over and under age 10 is a disservice to our tween population (9-12 years), and may be overlooking our role in understanding the negative impacts of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) during a formative period of development. In this commentary, we discuss the importance of considering tweens as a unique population of youth who are differentially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We first describe the distinctive progress of tweens across various facets of developmental health, followed by recommendations to improve understanding and address impact of the pandemic and its restrictions on tweens.

Cumulative Social Risk and Child Screen Use: The Role of Child Temperament.

Objectives: It is critical to understand what children, and in which context, are at risk for high levels of screen use. This study examines whether child temperament interacts with cumulative social risk to predict young children's screen use and if the results are consistent with differential susceptibility or diathesis-stress models.

Methods: Data from 1,992 families in Calgary, Alberta (81% White; 47% female; 94% >$40,000 income) from the All Our Families cohort were included.

Global Prevalence of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Children and Adolescents During COVID-19: A Meta-analysis.

Importance: Emerging research suggests that the global prevalence of child and adolescent mental illness has increased considerably during COVID-19. However, substantial variability in prevalence rates have been reported across the literature.

Objective: To ascertain more precise estimates of the global prevalence of child and adolescent clinically elevated depression and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19; to compare these rates with prepandemic estimates; and to examine whether demographic (eg, age, sex), geographical (ie, global region), or methodological (eg, pandemic data collection time point, informant of mental illness, study quality) factors explained variation in prevalence rates across studies.

Child and family factors associated with child mental health and well-being during COVID-19.

Understanding the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the current generation of youth is critical for post-pandemic recovery planning. This study aimed to identify the most salient child (i.e.

Cross-Sectional Study Protocol for the COVID-19 Impact Survey of Mothers and Their 7-11 Year Old Children in Alberta, Canada.

Our aim is to understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on families who have been followed longitudinally in two cohorts studied in Alberta, Canada. We will examine household infections during the COVID-19 pandemic, financial impact, domestic violence, substance use, child school and daily life and relationships in the home. We will identify risk and protective factors for maternal mental health outcomes using longitudinal data that can inform policy and government resource allocation in future disasters.

Longitudinal Associations Between Screen Use and Reading in Preschool-Aged Children.

Background And Objectives: The home literacy environment has been identified as a key predictor of children's language, school readiness, academic achievement, and behavioral outcomes. With the increased accessibility and consumption of digital media, it is important to understand whether screen use impacts off-line enrichment activities such as reading or whether reading activities offset screen use. Using a prospective birth cohort, we examined reading and screen use at 24, 36, and 60 months to elucidate the directional association between screen use and reading over time.

Screen time and developmental and behavioral outcomes for preschool children.

Background: One pressing question in the field of pediatrics is whether a dose-response relation is observed between hours of screen time and child outcomes. This study examined the association between hours of screen time (≤1 vs 2 vs ≥3 h/day) and children's developmental and behavioral outcomes.

Methods: This study included data from 1994 mothers and children in Calgary, Canada, drawn from the All Our Families cohort.

Bidirectional associations between screen time and children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors.

Background: While it has been purported that excessive screen time can lead to behavioral problems, it has also been suggested that children with behavioral dysregulation receive more access to screens to manage problematic behavior. In this study, both temporally stable and longitudinal associations between screen time and externalizing and internalizing behaviors across childhood are examined to directly address this issue of directionality.

Methods: Data are from a prospective cohort of 10,172 Irish children, collected between 2010 and 2018 when children were ages 3, 5, 7, and 9.

Maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: a longitudinal analysis.

Background: Parents have faced substantial social and economic challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary cross-sectional research has demonstrated increases in mental health problems in mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with pre-pandemic estimates. We aimed to study an existing longitudinal cohort of mothers to assess changes in the prevalence of maternal depression and anxiety symptoms as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic over time and at the individual level.