You have full access to this open access article. As the COVID pandemic further unfolds, it becomes a key theoretical and practical question to identify trajectories of child psychological well-being and to explore risk and resilience factors for developmental adjustment. The current study addressed this research gap by means of an ecological design: A lockdown —B relaxation —B relaxation —A lockdown. Key measures at T1—T4 were child emotional and behavioral problems as well as hyperactivity, child emotional and family-related well-being, parental strain, and parent—child relationship quality.
We found evidence for quadratic growth models. These findings have major implications for policies aiming to further child health during the COVID pandemic. The COVID pandemic constitutes one of the major large-scale sociohistorical disruption of the twenty-first century. In the first year of the pandemic, strict lockdowns and periods of loosened restrictions followed each other and presented major challenges for child well-being and psychosocial adjustment e.
While increasing longitudinal literature reports on child mental health during the COVID pandemic e. This requires longitudinal work spanning multiple alternations of lockdowns and relaxations. As opposite to lockdowns, relaxations thereby refer to time periods of less restrictive public health measures such as less social distancing, reopening of educational facilities, and less home-office obligations in many countries [ 21 , 34 ].
The present study aimed at adding a novel perspective on this issue of great societal concern by investigating trajectories of child mental health and psychosocial adjustment during the COVID pandemic in Germany relying on parental report. Major developmental theories, such as life course theory [ 5 , 17 ] and ecological systems theory [ 8 ], propose that macrostructural disruptions impact child well-being and development.
While some aspects of crisis might directly impact developmental trajectories e. Within these theoretical frameworks, the COVID pandemic can be conceptualized as an unexpected sociohistorical change deflecting trajectories of child well-being. However, the particular shape of developmental deflections in the context of the COVID pandemic remains to be specified.
