According to the World Health Organization, the outbreak of coronavirus illness (COVID-19) has had global consequences, with over 33 million infections and over one million deaths as of September 30, 2020. To restrict the spread of the epidemic, most countries enacted social distancing measures. The most widely utilized strategies were home quarantines and nationwide school closures. By March 23, 2020, when the data collecting was completed in Shanghai, China, there were 339 local instances and 75 imported cases, according to the findings of this study, which was conducted there. When the COVID-19 struck Shanghai on January 24, 2020, the city’s highest-level emergency reaction was activated, and the level 1 response remained in effect until March 23, 2020. People from contaminated areas were obliged to stay at home or be isolated in groups for 14 days during the level 1 emergency response period in Shanghai. All public venues and large-scale public events were also canceled during the level 1 emergency response period. According to the Shanghai Education Bureau, since schools were closed, online learning had been adopted for all of Shanghai’s 1.435 million primary and secondary students.

UNESCO reported on March 26, 2020, that school closures have impacted 87 percent of the world’s pupils (i.e., more than 1.5 million children and young people in 165 countries) by reducing access to education, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Furthermore, according to the American Psychological Association, aside from the possible inequalities generated by the digital divide and distant learning practices, school closures may also harm children and adolescents’ physical exercise, social contact, and mental health.

Movement restrictions can have a significant psychological influence on the individual. A comprehensive evaluation of 24 studies has looked into the psychological impact of pandemic-related quarantine on hospital workers, parents, children, and the general public. They discovered that people who had been quarantined had a higher risk of developing acute and posttraumatic stress symptoms and disorders, as well as a higher prevalence of general psychological symptoms, emotional disturbances, depression, stress, low mood, irritability, and anxiety-induced insomnia than those who had not been quarantined.

There have been serious concerns voiced concerning the mental health of children and adolescents throughout the pandemic-related quarantine and school closures, and the discussion over whether the benefits of the necessary measures exceed the psychological costs is still ongoing. According to parental reports, a previous study found that 30 percent of American children separated or quarantined in places severely afflicted by H1N1 fit the criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Chinese researchers submitted all of the most up-to-date evidence on COVID-19 that was available. In primary school pupils, the prevalence of depressive symptoms was 22.6 percent, whereas the prevalence in secondary school students was 26.3 percent. In China, the prevalence of anxiety symptoms was 18.9 percent, 22.0 percent, and 29.8 percent in primary students from Hubei Province, primary and secondary students from Shaanxi Province, and secondary school students from Sichuan Province, respectively. In the United States, the prevalence of anxiety symptoms was 18.9 percent, 22.0 percent, and 29.8 percent in primary students from the United States.

In addition to documenting the mental health status of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic, critical risk and protective factors must be identified to understand better who is at risk for mental health problems and what can be done to protect them from mental health problems and to maintain their mental health status.

When forecasting mental health status, perceptions of the epidemic and its potential consequences are essential. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the risk factors for depressive symptoms in primary school students and anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents was the fear of becoming infected with the virus. Likewise, for children and adolescents who are confined to their homes due to school closures during the COVID-19 epidemic, their perception of the impact of home confinement will likely have a significant effect on their mental health, as previously mentioned.

Parental involvement with children and adolescents is common during home confinement, without interactions between the parents and children. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that parents discuss COVID-19 with their children in an honest and age-appropriate manner that addresses children’s fears and alleviates their worry, rather than avoiding the subject altogether. Close and open communication between parents and children may, in this way, work as a protective element in the mental health of children. Previous research on epidemics and pandemics, on the other hand, has not looked into the perceived impact on children and adolescents, nor has it looked into the influence of parent-child dialogue.

As a result, we sought to fill in the gaps in the literature by estimating the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, as well as levels of life satisfaction, among children and adolescents who were subjected to home quarantine and school closure in Shanghai as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. As part of this study, we sought to discover characteristics associated with their mental health state, focusing on the perceived impact of house quarantine and parent-child discussions about mental health status during the COVID-19 pandemic.