LOCKDOWNS CREATED SOCIAL DEFICIT FOR CHILDREN

Children forced into remote and hybrid learning alternatives during the COVID pandemic have paid a price in social development.
That’s one takeaway from a national survey by Tufts University.
According to the survey, 46 percent of parents reported negative social impacts on their children due to pandemic restrictions on in-school learning, compared to 26 percent who reported positive results.

Other measures, including emotional well-being and physical fitness, also reportedly suffered.
“Many parents seem to credit schools with making the best of the situation, although some see bad effects, especially on social relationships,” said study investigator Peter Levine, an associate dean at Tufts’ Tisch College of Civic Life.
More than 70 percent of K-12 students across the country experienced some remote schooling during the 2020-21 school year.
One of the objectives of the study was to determine any disparate effects on learning, based on race.  Parents and guardians “of color” reported higher rates of negative adamic impacts with remote learning than parents of white students. But the difference in reporting there was within the study’s margin of error.