Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Children 'developing post-traumatic stress' from pandemic

Children 'developing post-traumatic stress' from pandemic

.Children are developing serious mental health conditions, including post-traumatic stress, because of the coronavirus pandemic, a charity has warned.

In a report, the Childhood Trust says disadvantage is leaving children extremely vulnerable.

As well as anxiety about their loved ones' health, many children are facing social isolation and hunger.

Lack of internet access is also setting disadvantaged children back.

With many classrooms still closed for lockdown, children unable to access the internet at home have been effectively shut out of online lessons. Teachers warn this will lead to entrenched inequalities between them and classmates from more affluent families.

Children in this position are also unable to access online therapy or other healthcare appointments they need.

A lack of contact with teachers and GPs, who are trained to spot the signs of abuse and neglect, is also leaving kids who are experiencing abuse at home hidden and in danger.


'Mum's going to die, she's not coming back'

Laurence Guinness, chief executive of the Childhood Trust, told BBC News many children it had spoken to were experiencing "vivid nightmares" about the coronavirus and death - a possible side-effect of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

These children had been particularly affected by the global death tolls, he said, which had made them worried their parents and friends would die of coronavirus.

"The rising death tolls being reported every day - these kids have seen all of that and internalised it," he said.

The report also quotes Dr Maria Loades, a clinical psychologist from the University of Bath, saying lockdown measures are "likely to increase the risk of depression and probable anxiety, as well as possible post-traumatic stress".

Galiema Amien-Cloete, a primary school headteacher in London, told the BBC she'd also seen parents' anxieties around the coronavirus "transferred to their children".

For children, she added, the loss of routine, contact with friends and regular education is often experienced "like a bereavement".

Children in low-income households are also likely to develop anxiety when one or both parents is a key worker - hundreds of thousands of whom earn below the Living Wage Foundation's recommended living wage, according to BBC analysis. The anxiety is not only because of food shortages and poverty, but also because their parents are in high-risk professions.

One primary-school-age girl from London, quoted in the report, said she feels "anxious because my mum works for the NHS, and I don't know if she's going to catch it or not". Another young girl said every time her mother left the house to go to work she thought, "mum's going to die, she's not coming back".

The trust, which works with about 200 charities, also spoke to children with existing histories of mental health problems, to find out whether they were able to access the support they need. Of the 2,000 children with mental health conditions it spoke to, 83% said the coronavirus outbreak had made their mental health worse.

Under lockdown, community centres and support groups have adapted by moving their services online. However, these are not accessible to children without internet access - for example, those who are homeless and living in temporary accommodation, or in overcrowded housing without broadband.

These inequalities are interconnected, too. Children from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds, are more likely to live in overcrowded housing, making access to mental health help harder. At the same time, their parents are more likely to become seriously ill and to die of the coronavirus, making trauma in the kids more likely.

Mr Guinness told the BBC that children with special educational needs are also particularly hard-hit. For those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), for example, the loss of extra tuition and their set routines has been "catastrophic". Some parents said their children's development had already slipped back by as much as a year.


'There is no "when this is over"'


Victims of child abuse and child sexual exploitation are also particularly at risk under lockdown, the report states. Former Home Secretary Sajid Javid warned of a "surge" in cases of child abuse earlier this month.

The Childhood Trust also points to a 21% rise in alcohol sales during the lockdown period, and quotes a statistic saying there are 2.6 million children living with a parent drinking hazardously, and 705,000 living with a dependent drinker.

"Children and young people caring for family members with substance abuse and/or alcohol problems may find their physical and mental health, relationships, and educational outcomes significantly more impacted than prior to the Covid-19 restrictions," the report says. This is particularly because of a lack of contact with teachers and health professionals who are trained to spot the signs of abuse.

Headteacher Ms Amien-Cloete told the BBC she believes these issues will continue to affect this entire generation of children well after the coronavirus crisis has passed.

"People keep saying 'when the coronavirus is over'," she said. "But there is no 'when this is over'.

"I think we need to be mindful that this won't be over for a long time, because we will have to cope with the impact of this on children. It's like grief - they say you never get over someone's passing, you only learn how to live with it. We shouldn't think it's all going to go back to normal when there are no more cases."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×