B3519 - The impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on family interactions and infant behaviours - 30/04/2020

B number: 
B3519
Principal applicant name: 
Rebecca Pearson | Dr (United Kingdom)
Co-applicants: 
Dr Andy Skinner , Professor Paul Moran , Dr Helen Bould , Dr Iryna Culpin
Title of project: 
The impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on family interactions and infant behaviours
Proposal summary: 

The impact of the public health measures adopted to control the COVID-19 pandemic on young infants and family interactions is unknown. New information is vital to inform future policies and recovery for families and aid infant development. Infants may show more unsettled and
restless behaviours even if they are not aware of the situation, however, they may also show positive behaviours benefiting from more parental attention if parents are home. Understanding of both is important to manage further transitions in an ever changing home environment. Furthermore , young children will have been separated from wider family and friends. Online chats may provide a helpful substitute to retain attachments, but how young infants respond to such interactions is unknown . Using our existing methods to code indepeth parent and infant verbal and non-verbal behaviours we can compare parent and infant behaviours in interactions at this time to already collected and coded interactions of ALSPAC-G2 families pre-pandemic. We can also compare infant behaviours towards parents in the same room and a mimicked online interaction (where the one parent joins a chat from another room).

Impact of research: 
A secure adaptation of our current methods would a) allow us to continue to collect these valuable data and b) support the development of a platform for the collection of high-resolution data on family mental health and family interactions at this time of national crisis. The resource being requested would allow us to refine this process with professional experts in product design with whom we already had already begun to forge a successful partnership before the pandemic. The remote solution is also of benefit to our partner projects using the cameras in Africa, Chile and Brazil. Impact: Identifying key sources of changes in risk and resilient behaviours can inform strategies to support families and guide policies for future traumas, including the possibility of a second COVID-19 peak.
Date proposal received: 
Tuesday, 28 April, 2020
Date proposal approved: 
Thursday, 30 April, 2020
Keywords: 
Mental health - Psychology, Psychiatry, Cognition