Resilience and adjustment in Lebanese children during COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a worldwide unprecedented, prolonged lockdown. Under such restrictive conditions, children’s overall functioning should be monitored as they are a particularly vulnerable population. The purpose of this study is to examine the resilience and adjustment levels of Lebanese children throughout COVID-19 and to look into any potential age- or socioeconomic-related factors that may be contributing to these discrepancies. The Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), a 25-item questionnaire, and the Child Adjustment and Parent Efficacy Scale (CAPES), a 27-item questionnaire, were used in this study's quantitative online data collection. The findings showcased relationship of each individual factor with resilience and adjustment. Furthermore, chosen factors were shown to affect each measure differently; for example, resilience was found to be associated with predictors such as age of children, their living conditions, marital and employment status of the parents and many others whereas adjustment model showed no predictions with any of the factors presented. Even though regression analysis didn’t show predications for adjustment, t-tests revealed significant relationships between adjustment and parental behavior. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of living conditions, parental behavior and children lifestyle on the resilience and adjustment levels of Lebanese Children. Taken together, these findings could be used to foster better resilience and adjustment amidst hardships and prolonged adversities.