COVID‐19 and mental health of primary school children: Comparison of 2019 and 2020

INTRODUCTION: It is believed that the COVID‐19 pandemic and associated global school closures may have an adverse effect on children's mental health. METHODS: We performed repeated measures of the mental health of children attending one primary school in Ireland before and during the quarantine phase of the first wave of the pandemic. We used the ‘My Feelings Form’, which is a 14‐item colourful self‐report measure which was completed in the classroom in 2019 and via postal survey in 2020. RESULTS: We had an 87% response rate in 2019 and a 35% response rate via postal return in 2020. We found no evidence of a change in mean measures of mental health between 2019 and 2020, in the 35% who responded in 2020. CONCLUSION: There is a cohort of children who were not adversely affected by the first wave of COVID‐19 pandemic and associated school closures in Ireland.