Increased Hyperactivity with Decreased Parental Perceived Social Support Among Turkish Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder during Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic.
Hyperactivity in school-age kids with ASD spiked during COVID lockdown while parents felt less supported—check medication adherence and boost family supports now.
01Research in Context
What this study did
İ et al. (2024) tracked 51 Turkish school-age children with autism. They compared hyperactivity and parents’ sense of support before and six months into COVID-19. No control group—just a simple pre-post check.
What they found
Hyperactivity went up. Parents felt less supported. The pandemic squeeze hit both kids and caregivers at the same time.
How this fits with other research
Wang et al. (2025) extends the story. Their daily diaries of Chinese ASD families show social support rises and falls each day. When support is high, moms feel better the same day and the next. İ et al. give the big-picture drop; Hui et al. show the day-to-day bounce.
Linscheid (2006) is an earlier piece of the puzzle. That survey found child symptom severity feeds parent depression through a stress spiral. Social support only softens the blow when symptoms are mild. İ et al. echo the spiral: more hyperactivity, less support, tougher times.
McGarty et al. (2018) and Cheng et al. (2021) link poor sleep to worse behavior. M et al. saw each lost minute of sleep crank up hyperactivity in crisis-level kids. Chen et al. found two-thirds of young Chinese children with ASD have sleep problems. İ et al. did not measure sleep, but the pandemic likely wrecked bedtime routines—one likely reason hyperactivity spiked.
Why it matters
You can’t rewind the pandemic, but you can act now. Ask about sleep first—fix bedtime routines and screen for medical issues. Next, shore up family support: schedule brief daily check-ins, link parents to online groups, and teach positive coping lines like “I handled that meltdown, I can handle the next.” Small boosts in support can trim hyperactivity and save parent sanity.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
<h4>Objective</h4>The aim of the present study is to investigate the change in emotional/behavioral problems of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the perceived social support of parents during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.<h4>Methods</h4>A total of 51 children with ASD aged between 6 and 18 years took part in the study. The Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were used to evaluate ASD symptoms, emotional/behavioral problems, and perceived social support, respectively. The cases were assessed before and 6 months after the pandemic.<h4>Results</h4>Our findings indicated that after the onset of the pandemic hyperactivity scores of children with ASD increased, whereas perceived social support of their parents decreased, compared to their pre-pandemic levels (<i>P</i>-value < .05). The increase in hyperactivity and irritability levels among children were positively associated with the presence of a chronic illness in the family and medication discontinuation (<i>P</i>-value < .05).<h4>Conclusion</h4>Quarantine in the COVID-19 pandemic may cause or worsen behavioral problems among children with ASD possibly due to problems related to poor medication adherence and lowered perceived social support among their parents. Clinicians working with children with special needs may be pro-active to assess and manage emotional/behavioral problems among this special population particularly during difficult times such as pandemic.
, 2024 · doi:10.5152/alphapsychiatry.2024.231226