Survey: Parents Worried About Children’s Development Two Years After Start of Pandemic

Parents are worried about various aspects of their children’s development due to the impact of the Chinese coronavirus and subsequent restrictions — some of which still linger in school districts across the country — the American Psychological Association’s annual “Stress in America” poll revealed.

The survey, released nearly two years after the World Health Organization’s (W.H.O.) officials declared a global pandemic, found that parents are still grappling with the aftermath of bad policy decisions motivated by both fear and power.

Across the board, 58 percent of Americans reported “experiencing a relationship strain or end as a result of conflicts” related to the pandemic, including differences of opinion over mask-wearing, vaccines, and the virus itself. Overall, a majority, 69 percent, say their lie has been “forever changed” by the pandemic.

Parents, specifically, have lingering concerns about the impact the pandemic had on their children. Large majorities across the board have reported concern for their children’s social life and development (73 percent), academic development (71 percent), emotional health or development (71 percent), cognitive development (68 percent), and physical health (68 percent.) Most parents also say it “feels like the rules around COVID-19 testing change constantly for their child(ren)’s school/daycare” and say it is difficult to keep up with the ever-fluctuating rules. 

The survey was taken February 7-14, 2022, among 3,012 adults and comes as some school districts across the country still struggle to revert to a state of pre-pandemic normalcy. The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), for example, is not yet recommending the school mask mandate to be lifted, even though officials are ending the city’s health emergency declaration, freeing adults from the citywide indoor mask mandate. 

“We get stories from moms all over the country who are telling us that their children — ‘mask mouth’ is a thing now where children are getting staph infections around their mouths and they’re having tooth decay,” Moms for America president and founder Kimberly Fletcher told Breitbart News during an exclusive interview at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, last month.

“There are teachers who are literally taping masks to children’s faces,” she added. “They’re putting them in isolation because they’re not wearing a mask. It’s absolutely absurd what’s happening.”