Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne, Vol 66(3), Aug 2025, 171-183; doi:10.1037/cap0000409
Early evidence suggested that the first year of the pandemic was associated with increased mental distress among children, youth and their families around the world; however, there was a general hope that children would “bounce back” after the initial disruptions (e.g., school closures) of the pandemic subsided. The data in this regard have varied, with some research suggesting that children and youth have largely been resilient in the face of the pandemic and other research demonstrating marked increases in mental health and developmental difficulties. As increased high-quality evidence has emerged, it is critical to summarise the widespread impact of child and youth development, mental health difficulties as well as risk and protective factors for these concerns and opportunities for addressing these concerns at a system level. Guided by a developmental health framework, our article reviews the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across diverse domains of child and youth development at various levels of the social ecology, including the level of the individual child, family and society. We discuss risk and protective factors as well as opportunities for protection and promotion of child and youth developmental health in the aftermath of the pandemic. We conclude by identifying future directions for research and clinical practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)