Social Emotional Behaviors of Young Children in Pandemic Time
Faculty Mentor(s) Name(s)
Tsu-Ming Chiang
Abstract
The impact of COVID-19 on social-emotional development in young children has significant implications. Studies currently show mixed findings. Young children missed essential experiences early in life relating to social, emotional, and language development due to COVID-19, which correlated with worsened adult-child relationships in children under six years of age (Erwin & Frey, 2023). The strongest predictor for all child reactions was family stress and instability (Larsen et al., 2022). Other studies indicated that lack of socio-affective and physical stimuli emerge as two of the main concerns for children aged 3-12 after COVID-19. This is particularly true in socioeconomically deprived children (López-Bueno et al., 2021). There also seems to be a difference among age groups. A longitudinal study done in Japan found that the social quarantine did influence children’s social relationships with others. However, the main effect was found in elementary school-aged children while infants and preschoolers were found to have no significant difference in social-emotional behavior after the quarantine (Hagihara et al., 2022). Another study observed how teachers were able to use reading and discussing children's books related to social-emotional learning, using visuals, and engaging children in targeted conversations that allow the child to use and expand upon those social and emotional skills that they learn to teach social and emotional learning skills to preschool students. With mixed findings, the current project aims to examine COVID-19’s impact on social-emotional behaviors in young children (ages 3-4) after three years of COVID-19. Teachers are asked to rate children’s behaviors in the classroom. In addition, teachers are also asked to report overall children’s social-emotional behaviors in classroom during the pandemic time. The data collected following COVID-19 are used to compare with the data collected before 2020 to document the potential differences in social-emotional behaviors.
Start Date
27-3-2024 9:00 AM
End Date
27-3-2024 9:50 AM
Location
Magnolia Ballroom
Social Emotional Behaviors of Young Children in Pandemic Time
Magnolia Ballroom
The impact of COVID-19 on social-emotional development in young children has significant implications. Studies currently show mixed findings. Young children missed essential experiences early in life relating to social, emotional, and language development due to COVID-19, which correlated with worsened adult-child relationships in children under six years of age (Erwin & Frey, 2023). The strongest predictor for all child reactions was family stress and instability (Larsen et al., 2022). Other studies indicated that lack of socio-affective and physical stimuli emerge as two of the main concerns for children aged 3-12 after COVID-19. This is particularly true in socioeconomically deprived children (López-Bueno et al., 2021). There also seems to be a difference among age groups. A longitudinal study done in Japan found that the social quarantine did influence children’s social relationships with others. However, the main effect was found in elementary school-aged children while infants and preschoolers were found to have no significant difference in social-emotional behavior after the quarantine (Hagihara et al., 2022). Another study observed how teachers were able to use reading and discussing children's books related to social-emotional learning, using visuals, and engaging children in targeted conversations that allow the child to use and expand upon those social and emotional skills that they learn to teach social and emotional learning skills to preschool students. With mixed findings, the current project aims to examine COVID-19’s impact on social-emotional behaviors in young children (ages 3-4) after three years of COVID-19. Teachers are asked to rate children’s behaviors in the classroom. In addition, teachers are also asked to report overall children’s social-emotional behaviors in classroom during the pandemic time. The data collected following COVID-19 are used to compare with the data collected before 2020 to document the potential differences in social-emotional behaviors.