The pandemic may have actually improved mental health for some kids, study finds
The most useful takeaway here is not that shutdowns were โgoodโ for children, but that context matters. Mental health is shaped by where stress comes from, and for some children the school environment itself may have been a major pressure point. That makes the findings interesting, but also highly specific to a moment when routines, demands and supports changed at once.
The evidence is suggestive rather than definitive. Self-reported symptom checklists can capture real change, but they cannot prove why it happened. A small improvement during the pandemic could reflect less classroom stress, more time at home, changes in family structure, or shifts in how difficulties were noticed and reported. Those possibilities matter because they point to mechanisms, not simple cause-and-effect.
Just as important is the uneven pattern across children. The study hints that kids with more externalizing behaviors may have experienced relief from constant attention demands, while others with anxiety or depression may have fared worse under isolation. That variation argues against one-size-fits-all interpretations and suggests that childrenโs mental health is often tied to fit between the child and the environment.
For parents, educators and clinicians, the practical lesson is to look beyond diagnosis labels. If some children do better with fewer social and sensory demands, more flexible routines or quieter learning settings, those supports may be worth preserving after crises pass. The pandemic was not a template to copy, but it did expose how school and home environments can either amplify or ease distress.
Kids who started out with significant mental problems improved
The study was based on the self-reported responses of over 1,200 children ages 6 to 17 who completed a checklist, before and during the pandemic, from the National Institute of Healthโs Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. LeWinn and fellow lead author Courtney Blackwell, professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, pursued their research to understand what kind of impact the pandemic had on children, with the data from pre- and mid-pandemic. Of the participants, those who entered the pandemic with significant, or โclinically meaningfulโ mental health problemsโincluding anxiety, depression, or ADHD behaviors such as struggling to focus in classโsaw the greatest improvements, what researchers called โmedium decreasesโ of their pre-pandemic numbers, of about 3 to 5%. And while low-income and Black children experienced smaller decreases in ADHD compared with higher income and white childrenโabout 0.5%โeven the smaller decreases, LeWinn said, can have an impact. She added that while some of their findings supported other research on this topicโsuch as girls faring worse than boys and the benefit of remote learning for someโthey expanded ways of understanding kidsโ mental health by studying specific demographics to find that not all kids struggled equally, or at all, with their mental health. โThis is adding some nuance to the picture,โ LeWinn says. The largest improvements were reflected in children who had more externalizing mental health behaviors, more prone to outbursts or trouble paying attention, LeWinn says. LeWinn and Blackwell donโt know the exact reasons why some children saw improvements, but they have some ideas. For the kids who act out most at school, LeWinn said, being in class can be pretty stressful. โIt can be a very challenging environment,โ LeWinn says. โYouโre being asked to pay attention constantly, and itโs demanding.โ LeWinn and Blackwell think that a break from those conditions due to the shutdown may have been helpful, leading to the improvements they saw. โIf youโre really anxious, being able to stay at home might relieve some of that stress, some of that pressure of being at school,โ Blackwell adds.For other kids, COVID-19 presented more challenges
LeWinn said the kids included were a fairly diverse bunch, with 52% identifying as white, 32% as Black, 12% as multiracial, 3% as another race, and nearly 10% as Hispanic. She said they came from diverse economic backgrounds as well. With such a variety of experiences, not every child will experience improvements to their mental health, especially in a time as difficult as the pandemic. โWhat we were trying to show, at least in these exploratory ways, was that the pandemic wasnโt the same for everybody,โ Blackwell tells Fortune. Of the kids whose mental health problems increased during the pandemic, Blackwell and LeWinn found they were more often experiencing internalized issues, such as anxiety and depression. LeWinn wanted to emphasize that while their findings reflected different mental health experiences for kids, they were paving the way for future research to dive into those differences and why theyโre occurring. Blackwell and LeWinn realized that the pandemic took children out of school, creating an unusual situation that inspired their research into how COVID-19 impacted kidsโ mental healthโa topic that still begs further study. โWe really just wanted to provide some insights into what might be happening and stimulate some future work,โ LeWinn said. โIt really probably is not the same story for all kids and some may be doing very differently than others.โBut make no mistake: The pandemic was very hard overall
LeWinn and Blackwell emphasize that this study does not mean the pandemic was a particularly good time for anyone. While they were only looking at mental health, there were numerous other factors that influenced kidsโ wellbeing during COVID-19. โIt was bad for children,โ LeWinn says. โThese small effects on mental health, they are dwarfed by the negative impacts on educational outcomes.โ While they were surprised at the outcome of their research, LeWinn adds, โI think itโs really important to be clear that a lot of these effects were small.โ They hope their work will lead to other studies that look more closely at the subgroups they worked with, such as different races, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds, to create a better, more nationally representative picture of how the pandemic affected kids before, during, and after. โMaybe we saw these โฆ immediate effects and they werenโt that big,โ Blackwell says, โBut if thereโs something we can take from this break that they had from school, or what was that environment that promoted their mental health getting better,โ then hopefully, โwe can address these inequities moving forward.โ For more on mental health:Enjoyed this article? Sign up for our newsletter to receive regular insights and stay connected.