ArticlePloS one2023
Impact of preschool attendance, parental stress, and parental mental health on internalizing and externalizing problems during COVID-19 lockdown measures in preschool children.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Disrupted beginnings: Neurodevelopmental outcomes of COVID-19 lockdowns in early childhood (Review).Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2026Review
- Behavioural and Emotional Symptoms Did not Increase During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Swedish Preschool Children.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2026Article
- A Qualitative Study of Center Director, Teacher, and Parent Input for Delivering a Virtual Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Model in the Aftermath of COVID-19.Early childhood education journal · 2026Article
- Understanding the Etiology of Externalizing Problems in Young Children: The Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Irritability.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2025Article
- The longitudinal relationship of young children's mental health with parental mental health and demographic factors during the COVID-19 pandemic.Discover mental health · 2025Article
- Exploring the mental health impact of COVID-19 on parents of young children: anxiety, depression, and contributing factors.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Knowledge of COVID-19 and the psychological status of parents: a retrospective survey in Wuhan, Hubei.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Psychological attributes and eating behaviors in 5- to 12-year-old children during periods of stress.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2025Observational
- COVID-19 Unmasked: trajectories, risk and protective factors for mental health outcomes in young Australian children during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.Australian journal of psychology · 2025Article
- Understanding Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 on Puerto Rican Youth: Influence of Parental Stress.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Psychometric properties of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form in a Peruvian sample.Psicologia, reflexao e critica : revista semestral do Departamento de Psicologia da UFRGS · 2024Article
- Impact of alexithymia, speech problems and parental emotion recognition on internalizing and externalizing problems in preschoolers.PloS one · 2024Article
- Coping strategies mediated the relationship between perceived stress and hair cortisol among socioeconomically marginalized parents.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2024Article
- Factors associated with mental health of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2023Article
- Behavioral and Sleep Disorders in Children and Adolescents following COVID-19 Disease: A Case-Control Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- COVID-19 Pandemic: 1-Year Follow-Up in Children and Adolescents with Neuropsychiatric Disorders.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Smart Beginnings Predicts Reduced Externalizing Behavior Via Parental Negative Demeanor During Discipline.Journal of applied developmental psychologyArticle
- Family functioning and child internalizing and externalizing problems: A 16-wave longitudinal study during the COVID-19 pandemic.Child developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundInternalizing problems are common in young children, often persist into adulthood, and increase the likelihood for subsequent psychiatric disorders. Problematic attachment, parental mental health problems, and stress are risk factors for the development of internalizing problems. COVID-19 lockdown measures have resulted in additional parental burden and especially their impact on preschool children has rarely been investigated as of now. The current study examined the impact of sustained preschool attendance, parental stress, and parental mental health on internalizing and externalizing problems during COVID-19 lockdown measures in a sample of preschool children in Germany. METHODS AND
findingsN = 128 parents of preschool children filled out a one-time online survey about children's internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and attachment for three time points: before a nation-wide lockdown (T1), during the most difficult time of the lockdown (T2) and after the lockdown (T3). Additionally, parents answered questions about their own depressive and anxious symptomatology for the three time points and parental stress for T1 and T2. Linear-mixed effect models were computed to predict children's internalizing / externalizing behavior. Preschool children showed a significant increase in internalizing and externalizing problems over time, highest at T2 with small decreases at T3. Parental depressive and anxious symptomatology increased significantly from T1 to T2, but also remained high at T3. Parental stress levels were comparable to community samples at T1, but attained average values reported for at-risk families at T2. Linear-mixed effect models identified higher parental stress, parental anxiety, attachment problems, parental education, and less preschool attendance as significant predictors for internalizing and externalizing problems in preschoolers with more specific associations shown in separate models. A limitation is the retrospective assessment for the times T1 and T2.
conclusionsPreschool children's mental health is strongly and negatively influenced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its lockdown measures. Sustained preschool attendance may serve as a protective factor.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.