COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS) report
Findings from round three (September to October 2021)

About this release

We present a series of reports providing an overview of the findings from the third round of the COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS). These reports include:

Background report

• Providing context to the survey, methodology and demographic characteristics of the participants

Report 1 - key behaviours in children

• An overview of the top line findings to present key trends emerging from the data. Results are grouped by the following themes and are presented by age group, as well as income category:
  • Parent and carer perceptions of the impact of the pandemic on their child's behaviour
  • Parent and carer perceptions of the impact of the pandemic on their child's social interactions and relationships
  • Children's mental health and wellbeing as reported by parents and carers

Report 2 - children's play, learning and experience of infection control measures

• An overview of the top line findings to present key trends emerging from the data. Results are grouped by the following themes and are presented by age group, as well as income category:
  • Play and activities
  • Learning and education
  • Outdoor spaces
  • Experience of infection control measures

Report 3 - the experience of parents and carers

• An overview of the top line findings to present key trends emerging from the data. Results are grouped by the following themes and are presented by age group, as well as income category:
  • Parents' and carers' health and wellbeing
  • The impact of COVID-19 on employment and household income
  • Challenging experiences, support needs and sources of support
  • Parents' and carers' use of key children's services

Main points

There are a vast amount of data presented across the reports. Key messages and points for consideration will follow in a briefing paper at a later date. Below, we highlight some general points arising from the findings.

• Overall, the findings suggest that for a substantial proportion of children in our sample, parents and carers perceive the pandemic to have had a negative impact on child and family health, wellbeing and development.
• The impacts generally appear to be felt to a greater extent in families from low income households, who may have already been struggling before the pandemic.
• The impacts do not appear to be universal, areas that some families report as having a negative impact, others report as having a positive impact.
• There are areas where the perceived impacts tend to be positive, rather than negative, and these should not be overlooked.
• There are areas where further analysis would be beneficial, which will be presented in future publications.

Background

The COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS) is an anonymous, cross-sectional survey administered online. PHS developed the survey to address a gap in the evidence base about wider impacts of the pandemic on young children and their families in Scotland. To date, there have been three rounds of the survey completed. Round 1 in June to July 2020, round 2 in November to December 2020 and round 3 in September to October 2021. Findings from all three rounds can be found on the PHS website.