Key social skills in young children declined after the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped nearly every aspect of daily life, leaving no one untouched. While much of the focus has been on how adults adapted to remote work or how school-aged children coped with virtual learning, one group remained largely in the shadows: preschool children.

These young learners, aged six and under, experienced profound disruptions to their routines as daycare centers closed, playdates vanished, and families retreated into isolation.

Yet, until recently, little attention was paid to how these changes might have impacted their cognitive and social development.

A recent study by researchers at UC Merced has now brought this overlooked issue into sharp focus, revealing startling insights into the effects of the pandemic on preschoolers’ social cognition.

Children’s cognitive skills after pandemic

Led by Rose Scott, a professor of developmental psychology, the research team stumbled upon their findings almost by accident. They had been collecting data on children’s cognitive skills before the pandemic hit. When they resumed testing after lockdowns ended, they noticed something alarming.

“It was remarkable to see the drop in kids’ performance,” said Professor Scott. “On one of the tasks in my lab, children tested before the pandemic could pass at 2 and a half years old. Right after the lockdowns, we were seeing 5-year-olds not passing it.”

This unexpected decline prompted the team to dig deeper, uncovering a significant gap in a key cognitive skill among children aged 3½ to 5½, particularly those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

Distinguishing thoughts from facts

At the heart of the study lies the concept of false-belief understanding – a cornerstone of social cognition. This skill allows children to recognize that others can hold beliefs different from reality.

False-belief understanding is a crucial step in distinguishing thoughts from facts. It plays a vital role in fostering cooperation, communication, and learning.

For instance, understanding that someone else might not know what you know enables children to navigate social interactions more effectively. Without this ability, tasks like sharing, taking turns, or resolving conflicts become far more challenging.

Testing children’s abilities

To assess false-belief understanding, the researchers designed simple yet clever tests involving puppets and toys.

In one task, children watched as a puppet named Piggy placed a toy in one container and then left the stage. Another puppet appeared and moved the toy to a different container. When Piggy returned, the child was asked where Piggy would look for the toy.

If the child understood false beliefs, they would say Piggy would check the first container (even though they knew the toy wasn’t there).

Current research shows that false-belief abilities develop significantly during a child’s first five years. Falling behind in this area can lead to struggles with peer relationships and academic tasks later in life.

“You think about what a child needs to do to interact with others in a classroom. They want to have friends, but have to take other perspectives into consideration to have effective social interactions,” explained Professor Scott.

“Like, ‘I know you want to play this now, but I really want to play this.’ It’s being able to hold those two viewpoints in mind and still interact.”

Decline in social skills

The study included 94 children in the initial group, each given three false-belief tasks. Before the pandemic, 80% of 5-year-olds passed these tests.

After the lockdowns, the success rate dropped to 63%. For children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the results were even more concerning – only 51% passed, which is essentially equivalent to random guessing.

To ensure accurate comparisons, the researchers also evaluated the children’s language skills and measured their families’ socioeconomic status based on household income and parental education levels.

Testing for the first group occurred between August 2019 and March 2020, just before the pandemic took hold. A second group, statistically similar to the first, was tested starting in September 2021.

The results showed a clear trend: children from lower-income households experienced a notable decline in cognitive abilities, while those from higher-income families showed minimal effects from the lockdowns.

Why the disparity?

While the study doesn’t provide a definitive answer, Professor Scott suggested several possibilities.

For families with fewer resources, the stress of financial instability or mental health challenges may have limited opportunities for meaningful parent-child interactions.

Additionally, children in these households might have spent more time engaging passively with electronic devices – an activity linked to weaker false-belief understanding.

Pandemic learning loss

Follow-up assessments conducted in 2023 offered little relief. The low scores persisted, indicating that the pandemic’s effects on social cognition may linger longer than anticipated.

“The low scores in false-belief understanding were still there, persisting like a wave,” noted Professor Scott.

This finding raises important questions about the long-term implications for these children. Will they catch up as they grow older, or will the gaps widen over time? The answers remain unclear, but the persistence of these deficits highlights the need for continued research and intervention.

The study’s findings also highlight the importance of addressing disparities in early childhood development. Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds already face numerous challenges, and the pandemic appears to have exacerbated these inequities.

By identifying the specific areas where these children are falling behind, researchers and policymakers can begin to explore targeted strategies to support their growth and development.

A growing concern

In March, Professor Scott presented her team’s findings at a conference in Pasadena, sparking widespread interest. Since the paper’s publication in November, the attention has only grown.

“Every time I talk about this, other people in my field say, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is it. This is what we’re seeing in our data,’” said Scott.

In December, a colleague from another university emailed her to express how the UC Merced study clarified patterns they had observed in their own research on post-pandemic social cognition.

Professor Scott believes there may be more data waiting to be explored. “It’s just that people haven’t had the mindset of looking at kids before school age,” she said.

By shining a light on this overlooked demographic, the study opens the door for further exploration into how early childhood experiences shape cognitive and social development.

As researchers continue to investigate, one thing is clear: the pandemic’s impact on preschoolers is a story that deserves far more attention than it has received so far.

Helping children recover after pandemic

The UC Merced study serves as a wake-up call, urging society to pay closer attention to the youngest members of our communities.

Early childhood is a critical period for brain development, and disruptions during these formative years can have lasting consequences.

As schools, daycare centers, and families work to rebuild after the pandemic, it is essential to prioritize the needs of preschool children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. By doing so, we can help ensure that all children have the opportunity to thrive, both cognitively and socially, in the years to come.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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