Read: New research shows economic uncertainty impacts children’s development

Amid a continuing cost-of-living crisis and an uncertain fiscal outlook, a new report has shed light on how the pandemic impacted children’s development. The worrying conclusion is that economic instability and disruption affected not just parents but also their children, far beyond lost learning.

During the pandemic children had to cope with school closures, a lack of contact with their friends and family and, for some, the serious illness or death of loved ones. Previous research has usually focused on the impact on children’s learning as a result of those challenges, and the fact that those from disadvantaged backgrounds were affected the most. This study highlights their progress through a different lens – that of their parents’ experiences in the labour market as a result of lockdown restrictions - and the multi-generational impact that can have.

The report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), based on research conducted with parents by the IFS and UCL Institute of Education, found that children from all economic backgrounds were affected. Half of all children suffered a setback to their emotional and social development during the first year of the pandemic, with younger children more likely to have been negatively affected than their older brothers and sisters. Girls were more impacted, as were children aged four to seven who were significantly more likely to have suffered a deterioration in their skills than 12-15-year-olds.

Children whose parents’ employment changed as a result of the pandemic, including those who were furloughed, were more likely to see their social and emotional skills worsen even if it was not accompanied by significant earnings loss. Just one in six children saw those skills improve over the same period. The socio-emotional skills of children whose families had experienced at least one change in the labour market were nearly 20% of a standard deviation lower than those of children whose families had stable labour market experiences, whether that was remaining consistently employed or unemployed throughout. The children whose parents had stable labour experiences held up better on average than the skills of children whose families faced more economic instability. That suggests that it was the stability of parents’ labour market experiences, rather than any particular economic state, that was a significant determinant of children’s socio-emotional development during the pandemic.

With many families continuing to face cost-of-living challenges, the report is a reminder that economic instability is a driver in the decline of children’s emotional and social skills. There’s a clear need to support all children who faced lost learning during the pandemic, but the results of this research suggest that there should be a particular focus on early years to make up the ground lost in their development. This goes hand-in-hand with the wider need for adequate high-quality early years provision to ensure that children can reach their potential as they progress through school, boosting their longer-term outcomes and access to opportunity.