The COVID-19 pandemic and social cognitive outcomes in early childhood
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns led to sweeping changes in the everyday lives of children and families, including school closures, remote work and learning, and social distancing. To date no study has examined whether these profound changes in young children’s day to day social...
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| Format: | Article |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-11-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-80532-w |
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| author | Rose M. Scott Gabriel Nguyentran James Z. Sullivan |
| author_facet | Rose M. Scott Gabriel Nguyentran James Z. Sullivan |
| author_sort | Rose M. Scott |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns led to sweeping changes in the everyday lives of children and families, including school closures, remote work and learning, and social distancing. To date no study has examined whether these profound changes in young children’s day to day social interactions impacted the development of social cognition skills in early childhood. To address this question, we compared the performance of two cohorts of 3.5- to 5.5-year-old children tested before and after the COVID-19 lockdowns on several measures of false-belief understanding, a critical social cognition skill that undergoes important developments in this age range. Controlling for age and language skills, children tested after the pandemic demonstrated significantly worse false-belief understanding than those tested before the pandemic, and this difference was larger for children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. These results suggest that the pandemic negatively impacted the development of social cognition skills in early childhood, especially for lower SES children. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-396d09f542654f8bb438a3dbf45731fb |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-396d09f542654f8bb438a3dbf45731fb2024-11-24T12:19:58ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222024-11-011411910.1038/s41598-024-80532-wThe COVID-19 pandemic and social cognitive outcomes in early childhoodRose M. Scott0Gabriel Nguyentran1James Z. Sullivan2Psychological Sciences, School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, University of California MercedPsychological Sciences, School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, University of California MercedPsychological Sciences, School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, University of California MercedAbstract The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns led to sweeping changes in the everyday lives of children and families, including school closures, remote work and learning, and social distancing. To date no study has examined whether these profound changes in young children’s day to day social interactions impacted the development of social cognition skills in early childhood. To address this question, we compared the performance of two cohorts of 3.5- to 5.5-year-old children tested before and after the COVID-19 lockdowns on several measures of false-belief understanding, a critical social cognition skill that undergoes important developments in this age range. Controlling for age and language skills, children tested after the pandemic demonstrated significantly worse false-belief understanding than those tested before the pandemic, and this difference was larger for children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. These results suggest that the pandemic negatively impacted the development of social cognition skills in early childhood, especially for lower SES children.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-80532-wCOVID-19Child developmentCognitive developmentSocial cognitionFalse-belief understandingSocioeconomic status |
| spellingShingle | Rose M. Scott Gabriel Nguyentran James Z. Sullivan The COVID-19 pandemic and social cognitive outcomes in early childhood Scientific Reports COVID-19 Child development Cognitive development Social cognition False-belief understanding Socioeconomic status |
| title | The COVID-19 pandemic and social cognitive outcomes in early childhood |
| title_full | The COVID-19 pandemic and social cognitive outcomes in early childhood |
| title_fullStr | The COVID-19 pandemic and social cognitive outcomes in early childhood |
| title_full_unstemmed | The COVID-19 pandemic and social cognitive outcomes in early childhood |
| title_short | The COVID-19 pandemic and social cognitive outcomes in early childhood |
| title_sort | covid 19 pandemic and social cognitive outcomes in early childhood |
| topic | COVID-19 Child development Cognitive development Social cognition False-belief understanding Socioeconomic status |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-80532-w |
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