Changes in children’s wellbeing in Bradford during COVID-19: The Born in Bradford COVID-19 longitudinal research study [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

Publication Summary

Background: Concerns have been raised about the potential impact of COVID-19 and associated lockdown measures on child mental wellbeing, but emerging evidence suggests mixed results and there is a dearth of information from ethnically diverse samples. The current study aims to explore the impact of the pandemic on wellbeing using longitudinal data collected from the multi-ethnic Born in Bradford family cohort study. Methods: Within-child changes in wellbeing were explored using data collected pre-pandemic and again during the first UK lockdown for 500 children aged 7-13 from a range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, using self-reported feelings of happiness and sadness. Associations between changes in wellbeing, demographic factors, quality of social relationships and physical activity levels were explored using multinomial logistic regression models. Results: In this sample, 55% of children reported no change in their wellbeing from pre-pandemic to during the first lockdown (n=264). Children of Pakistani heritage were more than twice as likely to report feeling sad less often than White British children (RRR: 2.61, 95% CI: 1.23, 5.51) during the first lockdown. Those who reported being left out by other children before the pandemic were over three times as likely than those who did al. Changes in suggest that children have coped well with the significant changes over the past year, though targeted support, particularly for those children who felt excluded before the pandemic, would be beneficial. This paper is a valuable contribution to the literature on the impact of the pandemic on children’s wellbeing. It uses two Born in Bradford (BiB) studies, the on-going BiB Growing Up (BiBGU) and the BiB Primary School Years (BiBPSY), to compare children’s wellbeing before and during the early phase of the pandemic. Birth cohort studies tend to enroll and retain children from more affluent and majority ethnic families; however, the cohort recruited and retained by BiB has a strong representation of families in the more deprived areas of the city of Bradford and those of Pakistani heritage. The findings of this study suggest that, contrary to many predictions, children reported being happier and less sad during the early phase of the pandemic compared with the pre-pandemic period. The finding that children of Pakistani heritage were likely to feel sad less often than those of white British heritage is striking and worthy of more detailed examination particularly as the prevalence rate of Covid cases and deaths among adults has been high in this minority ethnic group compared with the white British majority. Living in deprived areas in the UK has been associated with high Covid prevalence and death rates compared with more affluent areas but this study found no difference in children’s wellbeing in the pandemic by area deprivation. Although the study methodology is generally robust, I think the paper could be further strengthened if the following issues are addressed: Results - split each finding into its own sentence to avoid confusion ○ Results – split each finding into its own to confusion. Response: