TY - JOUR
T1 - Psychosocial Impact of 8 Weeks COVID-19 Quarantine on Italian Parents and their Children
AU - Khoory, Bassem J.
AU - Keuning, Maya W.
AU - Fledderus, Anne C.
AU - Cicchelli, Roberta
AU - Fanos, Vassilios
AU - Khoory, Janin
AU - Nervi, Deborah
AU - Elyan, Eyad
AU - Vuttipittayamongkol, Pattaramon
AU - Oomen, Matthijs W. N.
AU - Pajkrt, Dasja
AU - Abu Hilal, Mohammed
N1 - Funding Information: We would like to express our gratitude to the responding parents and their children for supporting the aims of our survey study. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022/6/1
Y1 - 2022/6/1
N2 - Objectives: Italy was affected greatly by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), emerging mainly in the Italian province of Lombardy. This outbreak led to profound governmental interventions along with a strict quarantine. This quarantine may have psychosocial impact on children and parents in particular. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of 8 weeks COVID-19 quarantine on psychosocial functioning of Italian parents and their children. Methods: In this cross-sectional survey, we included parents and children resided in Italy during the 8 weeks COVID-19 quarantine. We evaluated social and emotional functioning, clinical symptoms possibly related to emotional distress, and change in perspectives using a questionnaire. Results: The majority of 2315 parents (98% mothers) frequently experienced fear of getting ill (92%) and fluctuating moods (84%), the latter showing correlation to experiencing stress due to being in continuous close vicinity to their children (77%, r = 0.33). Parents reported a positive effect on the relationship with their partner (79%) and their children (89%). Irritability in children was frequent (74%) and correlated to parental fluctuating moods (r = 0.40). The vast majority of the participants (91%) reported that their perspectives for the future had changed. Conclusions for Practice: Our findings suggest a profound impact of the COVID-19 quarantine on emotional functioning of parents and their children in Italy. Despite the protective measure of quarantine against national viral spread and subsequent infection, health care professionals should be aware of this emotional impact, in order to develop protective or therapeutic interventions.
AB - Objectives: Italy was affected greatly by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), emerging mainly in the Italian province of Lombardy. This outbreak led to profound governmental interventions along with a strict quarantine. This quarantine may have psychosocial impact on children and parents in particular. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of 8 weeks COVID-19 quarantine on psychosocial functioning of Italian parents and their children. Methods: In this cross-sectional survey, we included parents and children resided in Italy during the 8 weeks COVID-19 quarantine. We evaluated social and emotional functioning, clinical symptoms possibly related to emotional distress, and change in perspectives using a questionnaire. Results: The majority of 2315 parents (98% mothers) frequently experienced fear of getting ill (92%) and fluctuating moods (84%), the latter showing correlation to experiencing stress due to being in continuous close vicinity to their children (77%, r = 0.33). Parents reported a positive effect on the relationship with their partner (79%) and their children (89%). Irritability in children was frequent (74%) and correlated to parental fluctuating moods (r = 0.40). The vast majority of the participants (91%) reported that their perspectives for the future had changed. Conclusions for Practice: Our findings suggest a profound impact of the COVID-19 quarantine on emotional functioning of parents and their children in Italy. Despite the protective measure of quarantine against national viral spread and subsequent infection, health care professionals should be aware of this emotional impact, in order to develop protective or therapeutic interventions.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Infectious diseases
KW - Italy
KW - Psychosocial impact
KW - Quarantine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122309478&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85122309478&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34982331
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-021-03311-3
DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-021-03311-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 34982331
SN - 1092-7875
VL - 26
SP - 1312
EP - 1321
JO - Maternal and child health journal
JF - Maternal and child health journal
IS - 6
ER -