Coronavirus (COVID-19) mitigation measures among children and young people: evidence base summary

3. Understanding of COVID-19 mitigation measures

3.1 Evidence from children and young people

Robust quantitative data from young people are available from the Young People in Scotland Survey 2021. The online omnibus survey of secondary school pupils was carried out by Ipsos MORI between 8 February and 2 April 2021, during the second lockdown and immediately after. The survey was completed by a representative sample of 1,361 state-sector secondary school pupils in Scotland, aged 12-18 years old^[3]. The majority of the surveys (75%) were completed at home, while 25% were completed at school.

The Scottish Government commissioned the following questions on understanding of face coverings guidance (4 point scale very unclear – very clear):

• How clear or unclear are you about when and where you are expected to wear face coverings?
• And how clear or unclear are you about the reasons why you have to wear face coverings in some situations?

The rules on face coverings were clear to pupils. More than 9 out of 10 secondary pupils (94%) were very/fairly clear about when and where they were expected to wear face coverings and about the reasons why they had to wear them in some situations.

The Lockdown Lowdown 2 survey^[4] was an online survey which ran between 28 September and 2 November 2020 when schools had re-opened and received 6,043 responses from young people aged 11-25 across Scotland. The survey asked respondents to rate their knowledge of current COVID-19 restrictions, such as how many households can meet, physical distancing rules and requirements to wear face coverings. As this was an open survey, it is not representative of young people in Scotland. In particular, most survey respondents were aged under 18 and around six in ten were female. The survey ran alongside focus groups with particular groups of vulnerable young people, which are introduced in Section 4.1.

54% of young people responding said that they knew what the rules were in general, but were not sure on all the details; 43% said they knew what all the current rules were; and only 3% said they did not know what the rules were.

The Lockdown Lowdown 2 survey also asked young people if they knew how to access information about various topics related to COVID-19. The topics that young people felt most confident in accessing information about were information and updates about COVID-19 restrictions (87%) and advice about COVID-19 restrictions (83%). The topic that young people felt least confident accessing information about was financial support that may be available to them (34%).

The survey also provided young people with an opportunity to make any comments around access to information on COVID-19. Just over 1,000 open text responses were received. The majority of respondents did not have any comments about accessing information. Of those that did have comments on this, the most commonly raised issue (by just over 10% (110) of responses) was that information on COVID-19 and related restrictions was confusing. In addition to the need for clearer information, there were also some ideas about how to make information more accessible (48 responses). An identified issue was poor internet connection and lack of access to computers (43 responses). A small number of young people (24 responses) felt that information relating to the pandemic was clear and easy to find.

The TeenCovidLife 2 survey is an online survey of 12-18 year olds on the impacts of COVID-19 on their lives run by the University of Edinburgh. It is based on an open sample and is not representative of young people in Scotland. The survey ran between August and October 2020 with a sample of 2,232 young people^[5] and the results were published in February 2021^[6]. It was designed to assess how young people were coping after the first lockdown as measures began to ease and schools re-opened after the summer break. The survey included questions on understanding of the COVID-19 guidance and trust in information.

According to the findings, 6 out of 10 of the respondents found the Scottish Government guidance on COVID-19 somewhat or extremely easy to understand, compared with around a third (34%) who found the UK Government guidance somewhat or extremely easy to understand.

To assess their confidence in medical guidance, participants were asked how much they trusted medical and health advice from the Scottish Government, the UK Government and from medical workers, such as doctors and nurses. Young people reported higher levels of trust in medical advice when it came from medical workers (65% of the sample trusted them a lot) compared with medical advice from the Scottish Government and the UK Government (32% and 18% respectively of the sample trusted them a lot).

Qualitative research with young people aged 11 to 25 was carried out by the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy (SCPHRP)^[7]. The study explored young people’s perceptions of the UK government’s decision-making and messaging in response to COVID-19 during the UK-wide lockdown in March 2020, as well as recommendations for effective messaging. This was a collaborative study combining data from the University of Southampton, University of Edinburgh and University College London. Thirty-six online focus group discussions were conducted with 150 young people from across the UK^[8], including Edinburgh and the Lothians, Glasgow and Fife.

The study (to be published) found that:

• Clearer and more consistent messaging was needed. Even though messaging on physical distancing during the early stages of the pandemic was clear, young people felt that messaging around the impact of COVID-19 on aspects of their lives, such as education, was unclear.
• Positive messaging was preferred, including ideas for activities to do during lockdown.
• Messaging should be aimed at young people. Often government information was not relevant to them, which made them feel overlooked in political decision making.
• Many young people lost their trust in the decision making of the UK Government in the early stages of the pandemic, which was primarily related to the belief that lockdown measures were introduced too late.
• Many of the young people participating felt that other age groups were not adhering to the restrictions, and that their age group was being unfairly judged by the media.
• Young people felt responsible for protecting others from the virus by adhering to the rules.
• Young people demonstrated a strong sense of social responsibility and believed they could play a larger role in addressing the pandemic such as helping to educate older generations about safety and the impact of COVID-19. However, young people felt excluded from opportunities to help or volunteer, which caused frustration and left many feeling side-lined during a time of national crisis.

Qualitative research with vulnerable children, young people, and parents was conducted by nine third sector stakeholders^[9] with an interest in specific vulnerable groups, to assess their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. This involved focus groups and individual interviews with 247 participants between 25 January and 20 April 2021 in different Scottish regions^[10]. A previously developed topic guide supported stakeholders throughout the interviews and focus groups.

Vulnerable groups covered were:

• Children and young people with additional support needs and their parents, with one or more factors requiring significant or co-ordinated support
• Children, young people, and mothers with domestic abuse experiences
• Children, young people, and parents who were asylum seeking and/or from minority ethnic backgrounds
• Young and single parents
• Parents in the perinatal period.

Overall, most children and young people understood COVID-19 mitigation measures and why they were important. However, participants perceived an ongoing change in measures which they found confusing, with many finding it difficult to stay up to date. There was a general agreement that distinct rules for different age groups of children and young people made understanding and adherence difficult, particularly around socialising. Many young people felt that the different rules for children and young people of different ages were unfair and that the reasons for the difference were not explained sufficiently. There was a lack of understanding among some children and young people why restaurants and pubs had been opened up before schools, baby and toddler’s groups and nurseries during the easing of the first lockdown.

Children and young people received information on COVID-19 from different sources, including friends and family, social media, the BBC, TV news and government websites. Participants felt that there was a need for information to be adapted to the abilities of different vulnerable groups (e.g. simple language and autistic-friendly information) and in community languages.

3.2 Evidence from parents

Weekly YouGov polling conducted by the Scottish Government contains a number of questions asked of a small sample of around 200 parents of children aged 18 years old or under, as part of a wider online poll of around 1,000 adults aged 18+ across Scotland^[11]. While no quota controls were set on parents within the sample, given that the overall sample is designed to be representative of adults 18+ across Scotland we would expect the sub-sample of parents to fall out as broadly representative. However, with the relatively small sample sizes, especially when results are based on sub-samples such as age of child, findings should be interpreted with caution and as providing an indication of the prevalence of views and behaviours only.

In terms of understanding of COVID-19 measures, YouGov polling from 23-24 February 2021, 23-24 March 2021 and 25-26 May 2021 asked parents of children under 18 years old to identify the correct restrictions for their children when meeting with others. Note that for each poll discussed below, the questions were asked in a different way.

For parents of children under 12 years old, over half were able to correctly identify the rules in place in February^[12] and March^[13] (59% on 23-24 February and 57% on 23-24 March)^[14]. On 25-26 May^[15], when some indoor contact was allowed again, percentages correctly identifying rules^[16] were similar for outdoor contact (50% identified the correct rule), but substantially lower for indoor contact (18% identified the correct rule for meeting indoors in private households, and 16% identified the correct rule for meeting indoors in public spaces). The May findings need to be interpreted in the context of the recent change to a more mixed set of rules for different environments, and the overall poor knowledge of restrictions among adults. Just over one in three (35%) were correctly aware of their level restriction for meeting in-home, and knowledge in other environments was lower as emerged from the 25-26 May polling.

For parents with children aged 12-17 years old, there was a decrease in the understanding of the rules, from 54% of parents identifying the correct rule in February^[17] to 34% in March^[18] 2021. On 25-26 May, 34% identified the correct rule for meeting indoors in private households, 36% identified the correct rule for meeting indoors in public spaces and 26% identified the correct rule for meeting outdoors^[19]. Again as stated above, May findings need to be interpreted in the context of relatively low knowledge of adult restrictions at that time.

In the 6-7 April 2021 YouGov polling, parents were asked to what extent they found the restrictions for children confusing. 45% of all the parents in the sample^[20] agreed that restrictions for children were confusing, a decrease from October 2020 (54% of parents agreed), while 34% disagreed. See Figure 3.1 below.

Chart showing the proportion of parents who strongly agree/tend to agree/neither agree nor disagree/tend to disagree/strongly disagree with the statement “I find the restrictions for children confusing at the moment”. The chart contains 2 charts: 6-7 October 2020 and 6-7 April 2021. The data are from YouGov weekly polling.

Source: YouGov polling; Sample sizes: 6-7 October 2020 198; 6-7 April 2021 194. ‘Not applicable’ option excluded.