Corona: Hamburg's children and young people suffer particularly badly

As of: 09/28/2021 6:00 p.m.

A nationwide study by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) examined how stressful children and adolescents are in the corona pandemic in July 2020. Now the Hamburg social welfare authority has published a new study on the basis of these figures, which sheds light on the situation of children and young people from the Hanseatic city.

Even more irritated and even more depressed: Children and young people in Hamburg have probably suffered particularly badly from the Corona crisis – more than in a nationwide comparison. Because parallel to the Germany-wide survey of 11 to 17-year-olds, the UKE also asked more than a thousand young people from Hamburg about their experiences in the first Corona wave. Hamburg’s Senator for Social Affairs Melanie Leonhard (SPD) says: “In fact, the study also made it clear that the situation has often worsened for those who were not doing well before.”

Compared to the national average, the loads were higher in Hamburg, according to Leonhard, because children and young people in metropolitan areas were more affected by the restrictions during the corona pandemic. As an example, she named closed playgrounds in the Hamburg Journal of NDR television.

Psychosomatic complaints

A third of those surveyed stated in the study that there were more fights in the family during the Corona period than before. Children and adolescents from Hamburg reported psychosomatic complaints such as difficulty falling asleep, irritability and back pain or headache, sometimes even daily, more than the average in the whole of Germany. 14 percent said they had problems falling asleep every day.

Majority got through the pandemic well

The Hamburg social authority has evaluated the data collected by the UKE. And they give a very differentiated picture. For example, many 11 to 17-year-olds were more irritable than usual. Nevertheless, most of them – according to the study – got through the first phase of the pandemic reasonably well. And this is exactly what Joachim Walter, chief physician of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Wilhelmsstift Children’s Hospital in Hamburg, confirms: “This is precisely because nature built us in such a way that we have to learn to deal with stress. We have skin that heals when it does it is injured, we also have a psyche that – if it has the appropriate resources, i.e. the appropriate fertilizer, to heal – also normally heals. “

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Everyday school life assessed

The study also gives a differentiated picture when assessing everyday school life: 53 percent of children and adolescents found school more strenuous during the pandemic, 35 percent said it was less strenuous. 14 percent saw no difference.

An intact family is important

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The results of the Copsy study for Hamburg are clear: Many children and young people suffered greatly from the pandemic. 3 min

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The resources that are important for children and young people in coping with the pandemic include, for example, a reasonably intact family, friendships, material and social security. Only when that was missing did it become really difficult for children and young people. This is also clearly shown in the report by the Hamburg social welfare authority. Tobias Lucht, the director of the Arche in Hamburg Jenfeld, gives examples: “Well, during the pandemic we had many children who were badly affected by cramped living conditions and conflicts in families and a lack of support.” Two eleven-year-old boys threatened suicide and two girls had to be taken out of their families because of incidents of violence: “We have already seen that the pandemic has an impact on the mental health of children,” says Lucht. In the study, 80 percent said they had a good family atmosphere. But a third also said that there were more arguments in the family during the Corona period.

Crisis with two faces

So the crisis has two faces: There are children and young people who say in the survey that they now have more confidence in themselves because they have become more independent. And there are the children and young people who are among the losers. This crisis is therefore also a social crisis, says chief physician Walter from the children’s hospital Wilhelmsstift: “Ultimately – and that is always my great concern – the people who tend to be on the sunny side of family life actually grew out of it while People from socially precarious backgrounds simply have more stress factors and the stress can have a negative impact on their development. “

Leonhard wants more open child and youth work

Hamburg’s Senator for Social Affairs, Leonhard, who commissioned the investigation, sees it as a consequence to strengthen open offers for children and young people: “I think politics must learn that they make real appreciative, low-threshold, i.e. easily accessible offers that are not Have a lot of commitment. Where you can come today, not tomorrow and again the day after tomorrow. Without that being a problem. Just like we do in open work. That we make many additional offers during the holidays, for example. Freedom and joie de vivre must be now also be the measure of all things for young people. ” And maybe this has to apply a little more to girls and young women than to boys: According to the report, they suffered more from the crisis.

This topic in the program:

Hamburg Journal | 09/28/2021 | 19:30 o’clock

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Corona: Hamburg’s children and young people suffer particularly badly | NDR.de – news