Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40666212›Full record

ArticleAustralian journal of psychology2025

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.

Mira Vasileva, Eva Alisic, Vanessa E Cobham, Tahlia Gash, C M Hoeboer, Elisabeth Hoehn, Sonja March, Caroline Donovan, Christel M Middeldorp, Rebecca Moore and 1 more

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Article in Australian journal of psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Mira VasilevaDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Carl Von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6575-0860
Eva AlisicSchool of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Vanessa E CobhamSchool of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia.
Tahlia GashQueensland Centre for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health, Children's Health Queensland Hospital Health Service, Brisbane, Australia.
C M HoeboerDepartment of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Elisabeth HoehnQueensland Centre for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health, Children's Health Queensland Hospital Health Service, Brisbane, Australia.
Sonja MarchCentre for Health Research and School of Psychology and Wellbeing, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, Australia.
Caroline DonovanGriffith Centre for Mental Health, School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
Christel M MiddeldorpAmsterdam Public Health, Mental Health, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Rebecca MooreQueensland Centre for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health, Children's Health Queensland Hospital Health Service, Brisbane, Australia.
Alexandra De YoungQueensland Centre for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health, Children's Health Queensland Hospital Health Service, Brisbane, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Objective: Emerging evidence suggests a negative impact of COVID-19 on children's mental health. The aims of this study were to examine trajectories of mental health in children younger than 6 years as well as risk and protective factors during the first year of the pandemic. Method: In a prospective, longitudinal online study, data were collected on Results: The results showed that 1 in 4 children experienced moderate to severe symptoms in each problem domain. The overall means for depressive symptoms, anger/irritability, and sleep disturbance decreased while anxiety increased over time. For most outcomes, two individual trajectories were identified: moderate/high-decreasing (26-29%) andlow-increasing. Important predictors were negative COVID-19 related impact on daily life, caregiver distress, lower child positive affect and self-regulation. Conclusions: The current results highlight that the pandemic indirectly affected young children's mental health, especially in the presence of risk factors such as caregiver distress and poor child self-regulation skills.

Indexed as

COVID-19mental healthtrajectoryyoung children

Identifiers

PMID40666212
PMCPMC12218426

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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.