NEW DELHI: A joint study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the Child Rights and You have shown that nearly 50 per cent of children surveyed experienced stress of trauma during the Covid-19 pandemic and a lower family income was associated with greater stress.
For the study “Understanding Children’s Experiences During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Stressors, Resilience, Support and Adaptation”, over 800 children aged 9 to 17 years were surveyed across 13 cities and towns. While over half the children (60%) reported feeling happy, and most of them reported having a good quality of eating (78.9%) and sleeping (74.9%), almost half the children (48.7%) reported that their daily routine had “changed a lot”.
A considerable percentage reported feeling worried (41.9%) or bored (45.2%) and a few also said they would just like for normal life to resume. Further, a lower monthly family income per head was associated with higher stress or trauma response. Largely, children whose parents lacked job security (were unemployed or worked as labourers) and had little or no education fell in this group.
Financial problems in the household were the most frequently cited stressor (26%), followed by uncertainty about when Covid-19 will end (24%), and worry about contracting the virus (23.5%). While there were no gender or age differences in the experience of stress, a lower family income was associated with greater stress.