Difficulties of Families with Children and Adolescents with Psychiatric Disorders During the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The COVID-19 crisis has confronted parents with significant challenges in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry that must be addressed. Objectives: The current study aimed to evaluate the burden of the pandemic on families with children and adolescents diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. Methods: This descriptive study used a cross-sectional design. A total of 92 children and adolescents (age range: 2 - 18 years; mean age: 9.49 ± 4.72) diagnosed with psychiatric disorders participated in the study. The parents (father or mother) of the children were asked to complete an informed consent form, a questionnaire to obtain demographic data, and a questionnaire to gather information about the difficulties parents faced with their children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-squared tests, and Fisher's exact test. Results: The most common challenges parents faced included sleep problems (disruption of the sleep-wake cycle; 58.7%), excessive use of media (54.3%), and significant challenges with eLearning (53.33%). Inactivity (41.3%), difficulty accessing a psychiatrist (32.6%), difficulty accessing other therapists (23.9%), and worsening symptoms (23.9%) were the next most prevalent issues. The results also showed that 80.8% of parents of children with sleep-wake cycle disruptions, 83.5% of parents of children with excessive social media use, and 79.3% of parents of children with educational problems reported conflict with their children; the intensity of the conflict was moderate in most cases. A history of psychiatric disorders in parents did not predict parent-child conflict over the children’s problems during the quarantine (all P > 0.05). Conclusions: Attention to the impact of the pandemic on these patients should guide the care provided by clinicians.