Research shows the impact of neighborhoods on children’s well-being has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted daily life and raised concerns about its impact on children’s well-being. A new study from the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Program (ECHO) sheds light on how a neighborhood’s physical and social environment affected a child’s well-being before and during the pandemic.

Neighborhood environment was less likely to be associated with children’s well-being during the pandemic than before the pandemic, according to an analysis of ECHO Cohort data. The pandemic brought unprecedented social change, altering the way people and families interacted with their neighborhoods.

For example, during the pandemic, neighborhood safety was less important for children who spent more time indoors and less time outdoors. The closure of parks and playgrounds also limited access to green spaces and recreation, making those factors less important to a child’s well-being at that time.

The findings are published in the diary Environmental research.

The study authors note that the new findings align with previous research showing a link between neighborhood characteristics and children’s well-being. For example, previous studies have found that living in neighborhoods with higher poverty levels, lower education levels, and poorer housing conditions are associated with poorer health outcomes for children, including physical and mental health, cognitive development, and academic achievement.

“It has been well known that neighborhood characteristics are associated with children’s well-being. Until now, we had not looked at how the COVID-19 pandemic might change these relationships,” said Xueying Zhang, Ph.D., of Baylor College of Medicine. “Moreover, the effects of the pandemic may differ among children of different races.”

The study included 1,039 children from more than 10 ECHO Cohort Study sites in the U.S., primarily between the ages of 11 and 19. These children completed a well-being questionnaire, called the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), before (2019 to March 1, 2020) and during (March 1, 2020 to August 31, 2021) the pandemic. The PROMIS survey measures children’s mental and physical health, as well as relationships with peers and family.

The researchers then linked U.S. Census tract data to a child’s home address to examine neighborhood characteristics. They looked at factors such as race, education, occupational composition of residents, housing capacity and property characteristics. They analyzed how these factors related to the child’s well-being, accounting for the impact of the pandemic and differences between children’s racial groups.

“Our findings highlight the importance of how childhood race interacts with the impact of the pandemic on children’s well-being,” said Dr. Zhang, who led the study. “Future research could examine how people respond differently to environmental impacts during the pandemic and help address inequalities.”

Provided by Environmental influences on children’s health outcomes