TY - JOUR
T1 - Social connectedness at the playground before and after COVID-19 school closure
AU - Eichengreen, Adva
AU - Tsou, Yung-Ting
AU - Nasri, Maedeh
AU - van Klaveren, L.
AU - Li, Boya
AU - Koutamanis, Alexander
AU - Baratchi, Mitra
AU - Blijd-Hoogewys, Els
AU - Kok, Joost
AU - Rieffe, Carolien
N1 - Funding Information: The project was supported by the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (a VIDI grant) by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NOW), grant no. 452–07-004 to Carolien Rieffe; and by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement, grant no. 707404 to Adva Eichengreen. Publisher Copyright: © 2023
PY - 2023/7/1
Y1 - 2023/7/1
N2 - Social connectedness at school is crucial to children's development, yet very little is known about the way it has been affected by school closures during COVID-19 pandemic. We compared pre-post lockdown levels of social connectedness at a school playground in forty-three primary school-aged children, using wearable sensors, observations, peer nominations and self-reports. Upon school reopening, findings from sensors and peer nominations indicated increases in children's interaction time, network diversity and network centrality. Group observations indicated a decrease in no-play social interactions and an increase in children's involvement in social play. Explorative analyses did not reveal relations between changes in peer connectedness and pre-lockdown levels of peer connectedness or social contact during the lockdown period. Findings pointed at the role of recess in contributing to children's social well-being and the importance of attending to their social needs upon reopening.
AB - Social connectedness at school is crucial to children's development, yet very little is known about the way it has been affected by school closures during COVID-19 pandemic. We compared pre-post lockdown levels of social connectedness at a school playground in forty-three primary school-aged children, using wearable sensors, observations, peer nominations and self-reports. Upon school reopening, findings from sensors and peer nominations indicated increases in children's interaction time, network diversity and network centrality. Group observations indicated a decrease in no-play social interactions and an increase in children's involvement in social play. Explorative analyses did not reveal relations between changes in peer connectedness and pre-lockdown levels of peer connectedness or social contact during the lockdown period. Findings pointed at the role of recess in contributing to children's social well-being and the importance of attending to their social needs upon reopening.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Children
KW - Playground
KW - Sensors
KW - Social connectedness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85163202370&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2023.101562
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2023.101562
M3 - Article
VL - 87
JO - Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
JF - Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
M1 - 101562
ER -