Wealthier children experienced steepest fall in mental health during pandemic

Children's mental health worsened across the board in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the steepest decline was experienced by those from wealthier families - with employed parents or from higher income households Children's mental health worsened across the board in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the steepest decline was experienced by those from wealthier families - with employed parents or from higher income households. The study, led by researchers at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, and the University of Essex, highlights the urgent need for action to improve child mental health across all groups. The findings, which are published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, contradict predictions that disadvantaged children, who had worse mental health before the pandemic, would be hardest hit. Research has already shown that declines in mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been greatest among younger people, but the impact on inequalities in child mental health were not clear. To find out more, the researchers analysed 16,361 parental observations of 9,272 children in the nationally representative Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study. The research found that children with coupled, highly educated, employed parents and from higher household income experienced steeper declines in their mental health during the pandemic than more disadvantaged children, who tended to have lower mental health to begin with, effectively narrowing child mental health inequalities.