Psychological condition of the children who were in quarantine for COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective: We determined the features of psychoemotional condition of the children who wereunder quarantine restrictions for COVID-19pandemic for a long time. Methods and scope of research:We carried out the assessment of the psychoemotional condition of 52 adolescents who were in quarantine forCOVID-19 pandemic. The number of girls and boys among the surveyed was the same - 26 children of each gender. A "non-existent animal" projective test was used to assess the psychoemotional sphere of the children. We appliedthe psychometric method by Ch.D. Spielberg, Yu.L. Haninto determine the reactive anxiety (RА) and personal anxiety (PA). The questionnaire by A. Bass, A. Darki was used to single out the various aspects of the symptom complex of aggression and to calculate the index of aggression (IA) and the index of hostility (IH). Sleep quality was assessed with the help of the Pittsburgh Questionnaire. Results and discussion: Assessment of the psychoemotional condition of the children, who were in quarantine for COVID-19, showed the significant violationsin the majority of them (95.15%), which were characterized by the manifestations of anxiety (78.85%), aggression (59.62%) and exhaustion (15.38%). A high level of anxiety was found to be more often in the girls (25.00%), while in the boys, it was registered almost 2 times less (11.54%), and on the contrary, a high level of aggression in the combination with anxiety orwithout itwas determined more often in the boys (26.92%) than in the girls (13.46%). The frequency of exhaustionsymptom complex did not depend on gender. A more detailed description of the level of anxiety,performed with the help of psychometric methods Ch.D. Spielberg, Yu.L. Hanin, confirmed that the high levels of both personal and reactive anxiety were more inhering in the girls. Assessment ofthe forms of aggressive behavior showed that the manifestations of physical aggression and negativism were the most typical features for the boys, while the indirect aggression, resentment and guilt were observed in the girls more often. Thehighlevels of IA werefoundtooccur almost 3 times more oftenin theboys than in thegirls, whilethehighlevel of IH wasdetected equally often both inthegirls and intheboys. In the children who were in quarantine for COVID-19, psychoemotional conditions were often accompanied by sleep disorders, at the same time,they were observed more often in the girls than in the boys.