Children born during pandemic have lower IQs, US study finds

美国研究发现，疫情期间出生的婴儿认知水平相对更低

Children born during the coronavirus pandemic have significantly reduced verbal, motor and overall cognitive performance compared with children born before, a US study suggests.

美国一项研究表明，与疫情之前相比，新冠疫情期间出生的婴儿，其语言、运动和整体认知水平显著降低。

With Covid-19 triggering the closure of businesses, nurseries, schools and playgrounds, life for infants changed considerably, with parents stressed and stretched as they tried to balance work and childcare.

新冠疫情使得企业、托儿所、学校和游乐场纷纷关闭，婴儿的生活也因此发生显著变化。父母挣扎着平衡工作和育儿之间的平衡，常感压力巨大，分身乏术。

托儿所

With limited stimulation at home and less interaction with the world outside, pandemic-era children appear to have scored shockingly low on tests designed to assess cognitive development, said lead study author Sean Deoni, associate professor of paediatrics (research) at Brown University.

该研究的第一作者是来自布朗大学儿科（研究）的副教授肖恩·迪奥尼（Sean Deoni），他指出，由于家庭中激发（婴儿大脑活动）的刺激有限，加上婴儿与外界的互动较少，疫情时代的儿童在认知发展评估测试中，得分之低出人意料。

布朗大学

"It's not subtle by any stretch, " said Deoni. "You don't typically see things like that, outside of major cognitive disorders."

迪奥尼表示：“不管怎么说这都绝非小事儿，除非是严重的认知功能障碍，否则通常你都不会遇到这种情况。”

Whether these lower cognitive scores will have a long-term impact is unclear.In the first few years of life, the foundations for cognition are laid, much like building a house — it's easier to add rooms or flourishes when you're building the foundation, Deoni said."The ability to course-correct becomes smaller, the older that child gets."

认知测评上的不良表现是否存在长期影响尚不明确。迪奥尼表示，在刚出生的头几年里，认知能力的基础就已经奠定了，这很像盖房子——当还在打地基的时候，添加房间或装饰会更容易些。“随着孩子们逐渐长大，重回正轨的能力会越来越弱。”

Given this data comes from a relatively affluent part of the US, the fear is that things could be worse in poorer parts of the country and the world, he added.

他还补充道，鉴于本次研究数据来源于美国相对富裕的地区，令人担心之处便是，在美国及世界上相对贫困的地区，情况会更糟。

The key factor influencing these lower scores in infants has likely been stress on parents who faced challenges in both working and providing full-time attentive childcare, said Sir Terence Stephenson, a Nuffield professor of child health at University College London.

伦敦大学学院的纳菲尔德儿童健康学教授特伦斯·斯蒂芬森（Terence Stephenson）爵士表示，影响婴儿在上述测试中得分较低的关键因素可能在于父母承受的压力，他们面对的挑战既包括工作，又包括全职育儿。

"Perhaps not surprising that children from lower socioeconomic families have been most affected as this resonates with many of the other financial, employment and health impacts of the pandemic."

“由于以上情况与疫情带来的许多其他经济、就业和健康问题有关，所以原生家庭社会经济地位较低的儿童受到的影响最大，而这一点或许并不在意料之外。”

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