Anxiety in families of individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland

Article Article scientifique Article Anxiety in families of individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland eng 2023-02-06 2023-02-06 author Di Poi Giona 410865 author Dukes Daniel 0000-0001-8360-849X 635296 Section de psychologie (PSICO) author Meuleman Ben 0000-0003-2225-8320 748299 Département de psychiatrie (PSYAT) author Banta Lavenex Pamela 719308 author Lavenex Pierre author Papon Anouk 411011 author Tran Michel author Stallmann Lina 926972 author Treichel Noémie 919498 author Samson Andrea C. 951970 10.3389/feduc.2023.951970 2504-284X https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2023.951970/full <p> In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic generated a health, social, political, and economic crisis that dramatically reduced the institutional support for families of individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs). To understand how these families may have experienced and coped with the pandemic, we created an online questionnaire that reached more than 10,000 families in 78 countries. The current manuscript - framed within the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF-10) model - investigates the impact of specific health conditions and personal or environmental factors on the anxiety of families living in Switzerland during the early months of the pandemic. To assess how differences in anxiety over time were predicted by specific health conditions or personal and environmental factors, two separate multilevel analyses were conducted for parents and their children with NDCs ( N = 256). First, results showed that only parents reported an increase in anxiety when the pandemic started. Second, concerns related to loss of institutional support and financial and economic problems were the most anxiety-provoking factors for parents, whereas parents reported that the most anxiety-provoking factor for children was their concern about becoming bored. Many parents may have struggled with economic problems and managed multiple extra roles and tasks in their daily lives because institutional support was no longer available. As reported by their parents, although individuals with NDCs did not show an increase in anxiety, they may have struggled with boredom. This result may represent the inability to engage in satisfactory activities in daily life associated with a partial unawareness of the pandemic and the respective protective measures. Further research should more thoroughly investigate the potential effects of the individual’s primary condition, presence and severity of intellectual disability and awareness of the pandemic on the anxiety of individuals with NDCs. Ultimately, we present a series of reflections and practical suggestions that could help guide policymakers in potential future periods of crisis, social estrangement, and distance learning. </p> Dewey 128.37 Dewey 150 15 Centre interfacultaire en sciences affectives 0D8 108 Section de psychologie 71 false 1241 Affective sciences 593 Emergence et expression de l'émotion (E3 Lab) Frontiers in education 8 c40328ab-d265-4692-b328-fe7dc9863b7b Article (Published version) Public feduc-08-951970.pdf 3619480 application/pdf dbaa0f7f7b2391e06bdc87ad003a41ea62be00873583fac006b0be0d374f7658 openAccess Centres et instituts / Centre interfacultaire en sciences affectives Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation / Section de psychologie

Title	Published in	Access level	OA Policy	Year	Views	Downloads

Anxiety in families of individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland	Frontiers in education			2023	98	37

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Banta Lavenex, Pamela