Homeschooling stress fuels surge in anxiety during lockdown with married couples the worst affected

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Homeschooling stress fuels surge in anxiety levels during the lockdown with married couples the worst affected

  • People in marriages or civil partnerships suffering from ‘high’ levels of anxiety doubled in the first month of lockdown from 19% to 39%
  • One in four of these couples reported balancing work and homeschooling, compared to one in 10 of those who were single, separated or divorced 
  • Pensioners aged over 75 were also twice as likely to be highly stressed as those aged 16-24, the ONS found 

By David Wilcock, Whitehall Correspondent For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Lockdown has taken a debilitating toll on the mental health of Britons, with married couples the worst affected, new figures reveal today.

People in marriages or civil partnerships who have reported they are suffering from ‘high’ levels of anxiety more than doubled in the first month of Britain’s shutdown.

Almost one in five (19 per cent) of people in long-term official relationships reported feeling this way in the final quarter of 2019, data from the Office for National Statistics shows.

But that rose to almost one in four (39 per cent) of those polled between April 3 and May 10).

One in four of these couples reported balancing work and homeschooling, compared to one in 10 of those who were single, separated or divorced. 

Between 3 April and 10 May 2020 a higher percentage of those who are married or in a civil partnership also said that homeschooling was negatively affecting their well-being (8 per cent) when compared with all other marital status groups (2 per cent).

Pensioners aged over 75 were also twice as likely to be highly stressed as those aged 16-24, the ONS found, with part of the blame being attributed to reporting of their higher risk of serious illness and death from coronavirus, and also their higher levels of loneliness. 

Both of these groups, married couples and pensioners, reported the lowest anxiety levels pre-pandemic. 

Dawn Snape, assistant director of the ONS’s sustainability and inequalities division, said: ‘There is understandable concern about the impact of the pandemic on people’s well-being.  

Half of those shielding from coronavirus ignored advice to isolate

Up to half of people who are shielding from Covid-19 have left their home against advice, according to new data.

ONS figures based on a survey of 4,149 people who are shielding found that 49 per cent have been out since shielding began, while 51 per cent have stayed at home.

People who are shielding were initially told not to leave their home or garden, including for exercise, shopping or to go to work.

But on June 1, the rules in England were relaxed to say people could leave their homes once a day for exercise.

The new poll across England, covering May 28 to June 3, found:

Two-thirds (66 per cent) have not stayed two metres away from those they live with despite being advised to do so, while 11 per cent have always kept their distance and 23 per cent have done so sometimes.

Almost half (49 per cent, an estimated 1.1 million people) said they have left the house since receiving advice to shield and 40 per cent have left home at least once in the previous seven days.

Some 53 per cent said they had left home during the shielding period for exercise, 26 per cent attended a GP or hospital appointment and 24 per cent shopped for essentials. Some 12 per cent collected a prescription, 11 per cent had a blood test and 3 per cent went to work.

’19 million adults in Great Britain report high levels of anxiety.

‘One particularly striking finding is that 39 per cent of people who are married or in a civil partnership, reported high levels of anxiety. This compares with 19 per cent pre-pandemic.

‘It may in part be because of the challenges of homeschooling alongside work and other responsibilities.

‘Another marked change is in those aged 65 years or older. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic we consistently saw lower anxiety ratings in those aged 65 years and older, but now we are seeing the highest levels of anxiety amongst this group in lockdown’. 

The figures were released days after the Government approved the creation of ‘support bubbles’ containing two households, a move designed to help lonely people living alone and under-pressure single parents.

The latest easing of lockdown policies that were first introduced in March were ‘a targeted intervention to limit the most harmful effects of the current social restrictions’, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Families have been kept apart for almost three months since lockdown was formally introduced on March 23, with over 70s told to stay indoors and those labeled as ‘clinically vulnerable’ due to pre-existing conditions ordered to shield. 

Almost half of those under the age of 60 reported worsening mental health, compared with 26 per cent of those aged 70-74 and 23 per cent of those aged over 75.

Women were also more likely than men to say their mental health had got worse over time.

The ONS released data on anxiety levels across the UK today.

While it believes there is a link between homeschooling and anxiety it was unable to directly correlate the two, with its report noting: ‘The reason for this is the large number of missing responses to the homeschooling questions and they are not missing at random, they were simply not asked the question as they do not have dependent children. 

‘If we omitted these people, it would cause large bias to the model and decrease the overall sample size and consequently would have a worse model.’