Artikel
Motor development of children before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Are there social inequalities?
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Autoren
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Mariann Rigó
- Institut für Medizinische Soziologie, Centre for Health and Society, Medizinische Fakultät, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
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Simone Weyers
- Institut für Medizinische Soziologie, Centre for Health and Society, Medizinische Fakultät, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| Veröffentlicht: | 6. September 2024 |
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Gliederung
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has limited the options for structured physical activity for children to a large extent. Correspondingly, a range of studies showed that child motor development has deteriorated in the course of the pandemic. While it has been postulated that children from vulnerable backgrounds will be most affected by the pandemic, there are only few empirical studies applying an inequalities perspective. Against this background, we compare the motoric developments of pre- and post-pandemic cohorts of pre-school children to investigate if the pandemic had an effect on their motor developments, and if development trends differ by socioeconomic position.
Methods: Our trend study is based on the school enrolment medical screening of children in Dusseldorf. This examination is mandatory for all children before school entry. Due to the limited number of examinations in the pandemic months, this resulted in smaller samples with a selection bias towards vulnerable children in the pandemic years. Therefore, we compare two pre-pandemic cohorts (4,891 children enrolled in 2018; 4,564 children in 2019) and one post-pandemic cohort (4,551 children in 2023). These samples provide a comparable view of the motor developments of pre-school children in Düsseldorf.
Our outcome variable was assessed by means of social-paediatric screening and was measured by lateral jumps. We constructed a binary outcome variable “problematic motoric development” based on the total number of points achieved and using a cut-off value specified by the medical officer. To assess social inequalities, we contrasted results by (1) neighbourhood deprivation (well-off vs. deprived neighbourhoods) and (2) family status (single-parent vs. two-parent families).
Results: Our first results show that the motor development of pre-school children slightly worsened by 2023 compared to its pre-pandemic level. While the share of children with problematic motor development was 6.4 percent in 2018, it was 7.6 percent in 2023. The results by neighbourhood deprivation showed that the prevalence of problematic development was 3 – 5 percentage points higher among children from deprived neighbourhoods throughout all three waves. Among children from deprived neighborhoods, the prevalence of problematic cases remained consistently high at around 9.5 percent throughout all waves, while it increased slightly among children from well-off neighbourhoods (from 4.9 percent in 2018 to 6.4 percent in 2023). The results by family status indicate a higher prevalence of problematic cases among children in single-parent families vs. two-parent families (in 2018: 7.8 vs. 6.1 percent), and slightly higher prevalences in both groups in 2023 (7.3 percent in two-parent families; 9.2 percent in single-parent families).
Conclusion: Our results indicate that the motor development of children has recovered to its pre-pandemic level, though a slight deterioration of 1 – 2 percentage points has been detected in most cases. Social inequalities pointing to more problematic cases among disadvantaged groups have been also consistently documented throughout all waves. Therefore, we argue that the promotion of physical activity should remain an instrument for prevention, especially for vulnerable children.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
The authors declare that a positive ethics committee vote has been obtained.
