How children and young people are coping with lockdown

Family Kids & Youth has just completed the third wave of the Wellbeing and the Internet study – this time the research was carried out in lockdown and some key findings were presented on Tuesday at the University of Cambridge’s eNurture webinar that looked at mental health and schools. The study has given us a fascinating insight into how 7-16-year olds in the UK have coped with being separated from friends and family members, and with not being at school. The research looks at what children and young people are doing online, who they are speaking to and their wellbeing. Fieldwork, carried out with our panel partner Panelbase, included 1,000 online interviews with 7-16-year olds. We also carried out 6 online focus groups with boys and girls aged 10-11, 12-13 and 14-15. The groups were filmed (with prior child and parent/carer permission) and have been edited into 7 short films illustrating what children like about lockdown, what worries and concerns them, who they miss, how they are interacting online and how this compares with life before lockdown. We have carried out this research since 2018 and there is an interesting contrast with the last 2 years, with worries and concerns changing, time spent on devices increasing and online behaviour altering to meet peers online. Results will be presented to clients over the next two weeks and key findings will be published in July.