The mental health of Australian children has deteriorated significantly over the past year due to COVID-19, according to a new study from the Australian National University (ANU).
Associate Director of the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, Nicholas Biddle said the findings came from a major national survey that asked parents and carers about their views on a range of outcomes for their children.
Professor Biddle, who is also co-author of the study The impact of COVID-19 on child mental health and service barriers: The perspective of parents – August 2021, said the mental health of adolescents and young adults was of “particular concern”.
“We found 71 per cent of parents and carers of Australians aged 15 to 18 reported worsening mental health conditions for their children,” Professor Biddle said.
“A lot of this is due to the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and in particular extended lockdowns,” he said.
Professor Biddle said that compared to other surveys earlier in the pandemic, the negative mental health impacts had clearly become a lot worse in the eyes of parents and carers.
“And it’s across the board for most children, with parents and carers of Australians aged five to 18 saying their children’s mental health and wellbeing is significantly worse off than a little over 12 months ago,” he said.
“The analysis shows 61.8 per cent of parents and carers with children aged five to nine think their kids had worsening mental health conditions, while 63.4 per cent with children aged 10 to 14 said the same.”
He said mental health conditions were largely the same across gender.
Director of the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods and study co-author, Matthew Gray said in some circumstances mental health outcomes for young Australians had worsened due to their specific family circumstances.
“For example, outcomes appear to have worsened particularly for children where the parent or carer is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, lives in one of the States that have had long lockdown periods, or has high levels of psychological distress themselves,” Professor Gray said.
He said 20.8 per cent of parents and carers reported that they needed mental health and wellbeing support for their children during the pandemic and, of those, 73.2 per cent said they had sought help.
Professor Gray said that of those who sought help, 40.9 per cent said it was either difficult or very difficult to access mental health support.
He said the data showed a particular need to increase support for children who were struggling with poor mental health.
ANU’s 18-page study can be accessed at this PS News link.
