One year of COVID-19 - How are the children coping?

It’s March 2021, marking a full year since COVID-19 disrupted all aspects of our lives, including that of our children!

Children have gone through a lot, but over the course of these 12 months, they have come a long way in adapting to the challenging environment they found themselves in. We had spoken to over 120 UAE children in April 2020, during the initial months of the pandemic, and had found that back then, an overwhelming number of them were feeling ‘worried or anxious’ and ‘completely bored’. We spoke to them now, in Feb 2021, and thankfully, a lot has changed for the better.

It’s heartening to see that children are much less worried now. The numbers are down from 39% to just 10%, of children who expressed being worried or anxious! This success should be attributed to the extensive efforts of the parents, guardians, educators and the UAE authorities, towards ensuring a comforting and safe environment for our children.

Children, feeling ‘bored’, is also down from a massive 58% to 26%. Our children seem to have emerged as the real heroes, for they adapted really well to the changes and challenges thrown at them. The question - ‘what do I do, I am so bored?’, gradually led them to starting new activities, establishing new habits, learning new skills, spending time with family in new and more creative ways and overall, making most of the time available to them at home. They baked, painted, crafted, wrote poems and stories, coded games, solved the Rubik’s cube, exercised, started gardening, played instruments, made fun TikTok videos, launched their YouTube channels, and a lot more!

Overall, over 50% children, expressed that they are feeling positive now - calm, normal, or happy and joyful. The reasons for such positivity, as children shared, were - the increased family fun time, just being around their mother and father (for the younger ones), good source of entertainment, regular interaction with close friends even though virtual, exploring new outdoor activities, learning new skills through virtual classes, reduced pressure from parents, increased flexibility in their routines, and a hope to see an end to Covid-19 in 2021.

However, there are still about 14% children who express strong negative emotions – of being worried, anxious, angry, confused or demotivated. The number seems smaller, but, is quite significant and definitely needs to be dealt with urgent and immediate attention. Most of these children fall in the 12+ age group, who are concerned about their studies and their future, are finding it difficult to deal with anxious and stressed parents, or are just not able to make sense of the changed circumstances and the overall uncertainty.

What do the children wish for this year?

We asked children their top 3 wishes for 2021. It was surprising to see that children of this generation-the digital natives, whose top wish in the past has most often been, the latest device or some form of multi-media experiential entertainment, now, just wish to get back to their normal lives - with no masks, attending regular schools, physically spending more time with friends, resuming group sports, extra-curricular classes and celebrating birthdays and festive days like before!

One of their top 3 wishes that stands out, is to be able to ‘travel freely’, specially to their home country to visit grandparents and other family members. Most UAE children look forward to this annual or bi-annual trip, but with more than a year of ‘being stuck’, they have been repetitively dreaming of being able to travel again. Once this is all over, we ought to give children back their travel experiences, and in a much more celebratory way this time.

Children are also extremely proud of the new skills they were able to develop, as their regular schedules were disrupted by the pandemic. They took virtual classes, experimented with various apps and platforms that enable learning and did a lot more of independent research around their areas of interest. Arts and crafts, baking/cooking, sports, musical instruments and Coding, appeared as the top 5 areas of such learning and exploring. Building thinking skills and soft skills, emerged as another key area of interest for the older kids. Most children wish to further hone these skills and eventually excel at their new found interests!

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So, What does this mean to the organizations that support and cater to the needs of children?

1. Mental health will need continued emphasis. While kids are understandably less anxious now, having had some time to adapt, we are not out of the woods yet. There are many who are still vulnerable, particularly in households where parents are themselves grappling with stress and anxiety. Healthy and supportive family relationships are the most important to ensure mental well-being of children, family counselling and techniques like play therapy will need wider adoption. Schools will also need to prepare themselves for a longer adaptation period, particularly for younger children who are attending schools for the first time, after an extended period of restricted social/peer group interaction.

2. Virtual, interest-based learning will continue to be sought. Convenience, multiple options, quality mentors and teachers, and a growing comfort with virtual classes amongst parents, are some of the key reasons to continue. Competition is likely to intensify as platforms and programs will be accessible from across the globe. Smaller communities of like-minded learners, and programs that are specifically curated keeping in mind their profiles and intellect levels, will be prefered.

3. Post covid travel will see an immediate spurt and there would be greater demand for programs and packages designed specially for children and around families.

4. In general, preference has been shifting towards experiences, from goods and possessions. Post covid will see a much greater shift towards experiences, especially group experiences. Children will look forward to both indoor and outdoor experiences including celebrations with friends, and marketers will need to bake that in their offerings and promotions.

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For further details on the research findings, please reach out at - pratibha@sketchnext.com