Are Children Harmed by Being Locked up at Home? The Impact of Isolation during the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Phenomenon of Domestic Violence

Parental Home Safety Practices for Domestic Accident Prevention: How Prepared Were Parents for COVID-19 Confinement? A Cross-Sectional Study

(1) Background: Children are susceptible to home injuries. How prepared parents were to protect their children from accidents before and during the COVID-19 quarantine is uncertain. (2) Methods: We conducted a community-based, cross-sectional study in Greece between November and December 2021. We asked parents to complete an anonymous questionnaire voluntarily. Questions focused on accident-preventive measures taken at home during the COVID-19 quarantine. (3) Results: A greater proportion of parents took protective measures for a safer home before the lockdown than during the quarantine, while an interesting percentage of parents never utilized preventive measures for their children. Slightly more than half (58.6%) of parents did not seem to worry about a possible increase in domestic accidents during the quarantine. It was observed that those who had one or two children took more protective measures than those with more than two children. Older parents seemed to explain to their children how to access emergency services more often. Mothers stayed at home with the children more often, and their education affected the presence of some of the assessed measures. In our logistic regression modeling, parental concern about accidents was more related to the incidence of an accident during the pandemic and attendance at seminars. (4) Conclusions: Although the COVID-19 lockdowns disorganized family life, parents were aware of the importance of their parenting role in creating a safe environment for children, but according to the study, there is room for improvement.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychiatric emergency consultations in adolescents

BACKGROUND

There is growing evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated social distancing measures, affect adolescents' mental health. We wanted to examine whether and how the number and characteristics of adolescents' psychiatric emergency presentations have changed throughout the pandemic.

METHODS

We extracted data from the records of 977 psychiatric emergency consultations of adolescents aged 12- 19 who had been referred to the mobile psychiatric emergency services in Rotterdam, the Netherlands between January 1^st 2018 and January1^st 2022. Demographic, contextual, and clinical characteristics were recorded. Time-series-analyses were performed using quasi-Poisson Generalized Linear Model to examine the effect of the first and second COVID-19 lockdown on the number of psychiatric emergency consultations, and to explore differences between boys and girls and internalizing versus externalizing problems.

RESULTS

The number of psychiatric emergency consultations regarding adolescents increased over time: from about 13 per month in 2018 to about 29 per month in 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase was tempered. In the second wave a pronounced increase of psychiatric emergencies among adolescents with internalizing problems but not with externalizing problems was found.

CONCLUSION

Despite the reported increase of mental health problems in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic, we did find a smaller increase in psychiatric emergency consultations in this group then would be expected considering the overall trend. Besides changes in help-seeking and access to care, a possible explanation may be that a calmer, more orderly existence, or more parental supervision led to less psychiatric emergency situations in this age group. In the second wave the number of emergency consultations increased especially among girls with internalizing problems. While there has been a particular fall in emergency referrals of adolescents with externalizing problems since the start of the pandemic it is still too early to know whether this is a structural phenomenon. It would be important to elucidate whether the changes in emergency referrals reflect a true change in prevalence of urgent internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescents during the pandemic or a problem related to access to care.

Affiliation to a Social Group as a Preventive Factor in Suicidal Behaviors in Children and Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Suicide is one of the most common causes of death in the population of children and adolescents. Available data show the continuous growth of this phenomenon and the ineffectiveness of prevention programs. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected young people's mental health, including an increased risk of suicidal behaviors due to limited direct contact with the school and peer groups in favor of the home environment. Therefore, the aim of this narrative review was to consider the risk factors and protective factors for suicidal behavior in the under-18 population, with a particular focus on the importance of belonging to a social group and building identification with it as a phenomenon protecting against suicidal behavior. Additionally, in this review, we evaluate how the COVID-19 pandemic affected these relationships. The PubMed database was used in the search with the following keywords: suicide, suicide behaviors, child and adolescent suicide behaviors, group affiliation, family affiliation, ethnicity, religious affiliation, and the COVID-19 pandemic, with articles published between 2002 and 2022 analyzed. Research conducted to date indicates that both sustained and stable family and peer relationships, as well as a sense of identification and belonging, noticeably reduce the risk of suicidal behavior. Ethnic or cultural affiliation seems to have been particularly important during the isolation in the home environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, it has been shown that while in lockdown, contact through social media with individuals' identification groups was associated with a reduced chance of emotional crises. Furthermore, regardless of cultural background, attachment to a particular group correlates with enhanced psychiatric state of children and adolescents. Thus, available data highlight the need for building and maintaining affiliations with suitable groups as a protective factor against suicidal behaviors.