Protecting Mental Health of Families in a Pandemic

Credit: Unsplash /Melanie Wasser. By Ifeanyi Nsofor and Shubha NageshABUJA, Jan 22 2021 (IPS) Dealing with COVID-19-related city lockdowns has been exceptionally stressful, particularly for those parents who have had to balance work, personal life, children and elderly, providing home schooling or facilitating virtual learning, managing infection control within the home, and more, all while being disconnected from support services. Beyond all this, other mediators and moderators play a key role in outcomes for parents and children, including their function and adaptation – sociodemographic, exposure, negative events, personality traits, and the experience of death among close family and friends. It is therefore unsurprising the results of C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health 2020 survey of child health concerns. Clear links exist between mental health indicators and child-parent conflict and closeness, with anxious parents being particularly vigilant to responding to cues of children’s distress by encouraging them to express their opinions and providing support and acceptance of their decisionsThe poll is a national sample of parents to rate the top health concerns for U.S. children and teens aged 0-18 years. A breakdown of the results shows the top ten concerns as follows: overuse of social media/screen time (72%); bullying/cyberbullying (62%); Internet safety (62%); unhealthy eating (59%); depression/suicide (54%); lack of physical ac...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Education Global Headlines Health Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news