Research findings suggest that wealthier children in the United Kingdom faced the most significant deterioration in their mental health during the pandemic. While the mental health of children across the UK worsened during this period, those from highly educated, employed, intact families with high incomes experienced more substantial declines than their less privileged counterparts.
These conclusions, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, indicate that the gap in mental health between the poorest and wealthiest children narrowed as a consequence of the pandemic.
The researchers offered various potential explanations for their findings. One factor cited was the challenge parents faced in balancing high-paying employment with childcare and education responsibilities during school closures.
The study drew from data concerning 9,272 children as part of the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Parents reported on their children’s mental health using a standardized questionnaire between 2011 and 2019 when the children were aged five to eight. Data on mental health was also collected in July 2020, September 2020, and March 2021, all during the pandemic when the children were aged five to 11.
The results revealed that wealthier children experienced more pronounced declines in their mental health during the pandemic than their less privileged counterparts, who generally had lower initial mental health scores.
For example, the average difference in mental health scores between children with unemployed parents and those with employed parents was 2.35 points before the pandemic but reduced to 0.02 points during the pandemic, signifying a narrowing of inequalities.
The researchers acknowledged limitations in their research but stressed that their findings provide evidence of the ongoing deterioration in child mental health during the pandemic.
Unexpectedly, in many instances, children from traditionally advantaged backgrounds experienced more significant declines than those from disadvantaged backgrounds, resulting in a more equal but lower overall level of child mental health. This trend contradicted predictions from some child health experts who anticipated that the financial and emotional strains of lockdowns would disproportionately affect children with parents in unstable employment, living in overcrowded housing, with limited access to outdoor spaces and educational resources.
The researchers speculated that social isolation and reduced access to services during the COVID-19 pandemic brought the experiences of traditionally advantaged groups closer to those already faced by children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Additionally, emergency income support measures during the pandemic may have alleviated the economic burden for disadvantaged families.
A separate report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggested that the poorest third of families in England would see minimal direct benefits from the government’s expanded childcare entitlements. Starting from September 2025, children in working families would be entitled to up to 30 hours of funded term-time care per week from nine months of age until the start of school, expanding significantly from the current provision that provides funded places for three- and four-year-olds in working families.
However, the IFS contended that this policy expansion continued the trend of neglecting families in the bottom 30% of income distribution. While the new offer would benefit just over half of parents with children aged nine months to two years, it would include only a fifth of families earning less than £20,000 a year but four-fifths of families with household incomes above £45,000.
A government spokesperson responded, stating, “As well as announcing the biggest ever expansion to free childcare for working parents, we have also almost doubled childcare support for the most financially vulnerable, and by 2027-28, we expect to be spending £8bn a year to help parents with affordable childcare.”
