Action and Reaction of Pre-Primary and Primary School-Age Children to Restrictions during COVID-19 Pandemic in Greece.

ABSTRACT

The fast-spreading coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced countries to apply restrictive measures to counteract it. School closure was quickly adopted by health authorities. We aimed to investigate the compliance of children aged 4 to 12 years with the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and evaluate the impact of school closure on the children's educational, social, economic, and psychological outcomes. An online survey was distributed through a social networking platform to parents of pre-primary and primary school-age children. The study period was defined as from 27 November 2020 to 3 December 2020, two weeks after the school closure due to the general lockdown in Greece. This study showed that the school units were well-informed and complied with the protection measures against COVID-19. The pupils quickly adopted the protection measures, even those whose parents suggested masks were less effective. The quarantine-forced school closure highly impacted primary school children's physical activity, quality of sleep, psychological status, eating habits, academic performance, and household income. Web use showed an increase, with the children over-spending extracurricular time in web activities. Our study highlights the need for long term monitoring of these aforementioned indices, and the development of COVID-19 mitigation measures that carefully incorporate effectiveness and societal impact.