Kiwi kids reveal worst things about lockdown: Missing friends, tension at home

Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft says there is an urgent need to address the mental wellbeing of New Zealand children. Photo / Duncan Brown

Being separated from friends or having to endure tough family dynamics were some of the biggest challenges Kiwi kids struggled with during the six-week lockdown earlier this year.

A survey by the Office of the Children's Commissioner asking 1400 children aged between 8 and 18 about their living situation, relationships, learning, general wellbeing and how they spent their time during lockdown also reveals secondary students feel less likely to be able to cope in hard times, prompting calls from the Children's Commissioner for urgent action to be taken.

The Life in Lockdown online survey carried out in May just after level 3 and 4 were lifted showed half of the children interviewed thought the worse thing about lockdown was missing friends, tough family dynamics or putting up with annoying siblings.

But for most kids life was no different during levels 3 and 4 than before.

Some 53 per cent of kids surveyed also felt their relationships with whānau and friends improved during lockdown and a third said the best thing about lockdown was strengthened family relationships.

Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft said the survey revealed some surprising upsides of lockdown such as how much tamariki and rangatahi valued spending more time with their whānau.

"We learned that young people really valued time with their family. When we are thinking of what to give our kids for Christmas this year, maybe it's more of our time," he said.

"This also sends a powerful message to policy makers, that if they're really interested in improving life for young people, then solutions for freeing their parents and caregivers to spend time with them is really important."

However it also highlighted how Covid-19 could make existing inequalities worse, he said.

The survey also found that some children were disadvantaged when it came to technology as about 22 per cent did not have access to their own device and 3 per cent had no access to a device at all.

In particularly Māori and Pacific children were even less likely to have access, making online learning difficult for them during that time and instead did their learning via a package sent home by their schools.

Children's overall wellbeing was higher than an earlier survey carried out in 2018 - but those at lower decile secondary schools had lower wellbeing than those attending higher decile schools.

A much higher proportion of students at decile 5-10 schools felt fit and healthy, had opportunities to build skills and knowledge for their future and got to do fun activities in their spare time compared to those attending decile 1-5 schools. While the wellbeing of students had improved in those at the higher decile schools, it had dropped in those attending the lower decile schools.

Becroft said it was concerning that the number of secondary students who agreed or strongly agreed that they felt they could cope when things got hard had dropped by 13 per cent since 2018.

"These results show how important it is for policymakers to recognise the different pressures on families and address the underlying issues of poverty that drive so many inequalities. It also shows the urgent need to address mental wellbeing of young people in Aotearoa New Zealand."