Home-quarantine during the initial Covid-19 outbreak in Israel: parent perceived impact on children with ASD

Abstract

Background: Studies have reported that Covid-19 home-quarantine periods have had mostly negative psychological impact on children with ASD and their families. Here we examined parent perceived impact of a 6-week quarantine period imposed in Israel at the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, in mid-March 2020.

Methods: An anonymous online questionnaire was completed by parents of 268 children with ASD. Parents rated deterioration/improvement in their child's behaviors, abilities, mood, sleep, and anxiety along with changes in their own mood, sleep, parenting skills, and family relationships. We performed t-tests and ANOVA analyses to assess the significance of perceived impact on each domain and potential differences in the impact across families with children of different ages, genders, and levels of required support as well as families that experienced different magnitudes of economic hardships.

Results: Parents reported significant deterioration in their mood and sleep along with significant improvements in relationships with their spouse and child with ASD, and in their parenting skills. Parents also reported significant increases in the severity of tantrums, anxiety, and restricted and repetitive behavior symptoms along with significant improvements in social and communication abilities of their child with ASD. Ratings were significantly lower in families of ASD children who regularly require more support and in families that experienced economic hardships.

Conclusions: While periods of home-quarantine create numerous hardships for families of children with ASD, they may also offer an opportunity for improving parenting skills, family relationships, and children's social communication abilities with potential relevance for improving remote services.

Keywords: Corona; Covid-19; Lockdown; Psychological impact; Quarantine; Support.

Figure 1

Parent perceived impact of six-week home-quarantine period. Mean ratings on 12 child-related questions (a) and 9 parent-related questions (b). Positive values indicate parental report of improvement and negative values indicate deterioration. Items were sub-grouped into four child-related domains (c) and three parent-related domains (d). Error bars: standard error of the mean across participants. Asterisks: significant impact (two-tailed t-test, p < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected).

Figure 2

Perceived quarantine impact on children with ASD, stratified into subgroups according to the child's age, level of required support, economic hardships, and gender. Columns present mean ratings in each child-related domain. 1^strow: Stratification by children's age into pre-school (2-6 years-old), school-age (7-12 years-old) and adolescent (13-18 years-old) groups. 2^ndrow: Stratification by the level of support that the child with ASD usually requires (high, moderate, and low). 3^rdrow: Stratification by economic hardships into severe (>40% decrease), moderate (20–40% decrease), minor (<20% decrease), and no impact (no decrease) groups. 4^throw: Stratification by sex of the child. Error bars: standard error of the mean across participants. Asterisks: significant differences in one-way ANOVA analysis (p < 0.05).

Figure 3

Perceived quarantine impact on parents when stratifying subgroups according to the child's age, level of required support, financial impact, and gender. Columns present mean ratings of each parent-related domain. 1^strow: Stratification by the child's age into pre-school (2-6 years-old), school-age (7-12 years-old) and adolescent (13-18 years-old) groups. 2^ndrow: Stratification according to the level of support that the child with ASD usually requires (high, moderate, and low). 3^rdrow: Stratification according to financial impact into severe (>40% decrease), moderate (20–40% decrease), minor (<20% decrease), and no impact (no decrease) groups. 4^throw: Stratification by sex of the child. Error bars: standard error of the mean across participants. Asterisks: significant differences in one-way ANOVA analysis (p < 0.05).

Figure 4

Perceived impact of online consultations on children with ASD. Top row: Stratification according to the number/quantity of online consultations that the parents or child received per week (ranging from 0 to >3 times per week). 2^ndrow: Stratification according to the perceived efficacy of online consultations as reported by the parents (ranging from not helpful to very helpful). Error bars: standard error of the mean across participants. Asterisks: significant differences in one-way ANOVA analysis (p < 0.05).