Tracking the impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of children, young people and families; follow up of a national longitudinal probability sample

在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间，儿童和年轻人的日常生活在许多方面受到影响。学校和大学已经对大多数孩子关闭，而所有孩子都面临着休闲活动中断，与朋友、家人和社区网络保持距离的问题。疫情对已经处于不利地位的群体的影响可能最为严重。在封锁期间，需要帮助的儿童和家庭可能更难获得支持。虽然有关于儿童心理健康的在线调查，但我们知道，最弱势群体不太可能参与此类研究，而且我们缺乏关于儿童和年轻人在封锁前如何应对的数据。这意味着我们对不同儿童群体在短期和长期内可能受到的影响了解有限。因此，需要一项包括背景广泛、具有人口代表性的儿童的研究提供的信息，以指导为受影响者提供帮助的努力，防止出现长期问题，并更好地支持儿童和家庭从大流行中恢复过来，或在未来的任何封锁或大流行应对期间。在这项研究中，我们将联系参加2017年英国儿童和青少年心理健康（MHCYP）全国调查的父母、儿童和青少年以及家庭，并要求他们参加2020年7月、2020年10月和2021年1月的三次后续调查。这些年轻人现在的年龄在5-22岁之间。这项研究的主要目的是：1 .追踪大流行期间儿童的心理健康和福祉情况；2 .确定心理健康可能受到最严重影响的儿童群体；3 .探索可能增加问题风险或防止心理健康问题发展的因素；4 .报告在获得心理健康问题帮助和支持方面的变化情况。调查将询问：儿童心理健康和福祉、父母心理健康、对冠状病毒的担忧、冠状病毒对家庭的影响（例如就业和教育）、获得心理健康帮助和支持的机会，以及儿童或青少年的日常生活和活动。我们还将邀请一些年轻人和家庭参与更详细的采访，讲述他们的经历；访谈的主题将部分取决于调查结果，以及与我们合作的年轻人、家庭、专业人士和机构的意见和优先事项。我们的团队包括来自国家统计办公室和NatCen社会研究中心的专家，他们负责之前的全国儿童心理健康调查，以及来自三所大学（剑桥大学、埃克塞特大学和伦敦国王学院）的专家。我们将与卫生和社会保障部、教育部、英格兰国家医疗服务体系以及与儿童和家庭有关的慈善机构和其他组织密切合作，开展卫生、护理和教育服务。我们还将成立一个由年轻人、家长和从事教育、保健和护理工作的专业人员组成的咨询小组。我们将制作“快速报告”，以帮助这些团体和组织计划并为最需要的儿童和家庭提供照顾和支持。例如，我们的研究结果可能有助于：确定在未来任何封锁或大流行中可能需要额外支持的儿童群体；或者规划服务以满足特定需求，例如增加焦虑程度或与创伤有关的症状，以及改善在家学习的机会。我们将在国内和国际上与其他研究儿童心理健康和Covid-19的研究人员合作，帮助了解全球范围内的心理健康影响，并在学术期刊和会议上分享我们的发现。我们将与顾问小组合作，开发博客、视频和新闻，与公众分享主要信息。

Children and young people's daily lives have been affected in many ways during the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools and colleges have closed to most children, while all have faced disruption to leisure activities and physical distancing from friends, family and community networks. The impact of the outbreak may be most severe for the groups who are already disadvantaged. Children and families needing help may have found it harder to access support during lockdown. Although there have been online surveys of children's mental health, we know that the most disadvantaged groups are less likely to take part in such studies, and we lack data on how children and young people were coping before lockdown. This means that we have a limited understanding of how different groups of children might be affected in the short and longer term. Information from a study that includes children from a wide range of backgrounds and is representative of the population is therefore needed in order to guide efforts to provide help for those affected, prevent longer term problems, and to better support children and families in the recovery from the pandemic, or during any future lockdowns or pandemic response. In this research, we will contact the parents, children and young people and families who took part in the national Mental Health of Children and Young People in England (MHCYP) survey 2017, and ask them to participate in three follow-up surveys, in July 2020, October 2020 and January 2021. The young people are now aged 5-22 years. The main aims of the research are:1/ To track children's mental health and wellbeing over the course of the pandemic 2/ To identify groups of children whose mental health may have been most affected,3/ To explore the factors which might increase the risk of problems, or protect against the development of mental health problems4/ To report on changes in access to help and support for mental health concernsThe surveys will ask about: child mental health and wellbeing, parent mental health, worries about coronavirus, impacts of coronavirus on the household (for example, employment and education), access to mental health help and support, and about the child or young person's daily life and activities. We will also invite some young people and families to take part in more detailed interviews about their experiences; the interview topics will depend partly on the findings of the surveys, and on the views and priorities of the young people, families, professionals and organisations working with us. Our team includes experts from the Office for National Statistics and NatCen Social Research who ran the previous national child mental health surveys, as well as from three universities (Cambridge, Exeter and Kings College London). We will be working closely with the Department for Health and Social Care, the Department for Education, and NHS England, as well as with charities and other groups working with children and families and running health, care and education services. We will also have an advisory panel of young people, parents, and professionals working in education, health and care. We will produce 'rapid reports' to help these groups and organisations plan and provide care and support for the children and families who need it most. For example, our findings may help in: identifying groups of children who might need additional support in any future lockdown or pandemic; or in planning services to meet specific needs such as increased levels of anxiety or trauma-related symptoms, and improved access to learning at home. We will work nationally and internationally with other researchers studying children's mental health and Covid-19, to help understand the mental health impacts on a global scale, and share our findings in academic journals and conferences. We will work with our advisory panel to develop blogs, videos and news items to share the main messages with the public.