Silent trauma of children facing the strictest lockdown in Europe

With each passing day, the bickering bouncing off the walls of one 90-metre square apartment in Barcelona has sharpened further. As Spain’s confinement stretches past five weeks, Ada Colau has watched her two children, aged nine and three, wilt under the pressure of life in lockdown.

“Week after week, they fight with each other more and more. They have fits of sadness, of anger,” said the mayor of Barcelona. “The three-year-old, who was already out of nappies, has regressed and never asks to go to the bathroom any more.”

Colau is unequivocal about the cause: a lockdown that has left children in Spain confined to their homes longer – and under stricter conditions – than any other country in Europe.

“We have spent more than a month at home with two small children, who haven’t left home for even one single day,” said Colau. “These children need to get out.”

The leftwing mayor is equally as clear about the remedy: “Wait no longer: Free our children!” Colau urged on social media last week. Politicians of all stripes have echoed her call, as have hundreds of doctors, psychologists and educators, citing concerns about children’s ability to manage issues such as anxiety and stress while being kept entirely indoors.

The Spanish government plunged the country into a near-total lockdown on 14 March, ordering most residents to remain at home at all times, allowed out individually and only for short trips to buy food, medicine, or to walk the dog. Save for a few exceptions – such as children with special educational needs or single-parent families – minors are to remain in their homes.

The stringent measures were unleashed as the country tackled a Covid-19 outbreak that was spreading at one of the fastest rates in the world. Spain has seen more deaths per million than any other country, with more than 19,000 people killed as the virus raced through the country. Amid concerns that the actual number of deaths caused by the virus could be much higher, the government has said the lockdown is likely to stretch into mid-May.

Recent days have seen the calls for children to be let out intensify – particularly after the government relaxed the lockdown to allow some non-essential workers to return to factories and construction sites.

“Why do our children have to keep waiting?” Colau asked, arguing parents could be trusted to safely take their children out for walks close to home. “Let’s find a way to do it right and according to the advice of health experts.”

Her view was echoed by more than 300 professionals who work with children – from psychologists to paediatricians – who signed an open letter to the socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez.

“The results of this rigid confinement for children are beginning to show, particularly in urban areas with limited domestic spaces, with increased levels of stress and anxiety,” the letter read, urging that children be let out for at least one hour each day. Not doing so, it added, risks their “wellbeing, their health and their physical and mental development”.

A further warning came from the Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity, which estimated that the lockdown could see a 5% weight gain in children and adolescents, adding to an obesity rate that already ranks among the highest in Europe.

“We’re the only country in Europe that doesn’t let children out,” said Heike Freire, the psychologist behind an online petition calling for children to be allowed outside, which has received more than 54,000 signatures. “Children here have spent 34 days without stepping out on to the street.”

In France and Belgium children are allowed out of their homes for one hour each day within a limited distance. After weeks of total confinement, most Italian authorities now allow minors out for a walk close to home, accompanied by one parent. Last week, Denmark reopened its primary schools and kindergartens, while Norway plans to follow suit later this month.

Campaigners argue that the situation is particularly acute in Spain, where the dense layers of apartment buildings that sprawl across cities have left many of the country’s nearly seven million children without direct access to fresh air or sunlight. “Approximately 70% of Spanish families with children live in apartments, many of them 50- to 70-metres square and without balconies,” said Freire.

The Spanish government has so far fended off any push to relax the rules, advising caution in a country where multi-generational families are common. “The measures – some of the strictest in Europe – are out of prudence, as children are a vector of transmission,” Salvador Illa, the country’s health minister told reporters last week. His government is monitoring the epidemiological data to decide when it will be safe to allow children outside, he added.

Those who work with children say they have already seen a rise in anxiety issues. “We’re seeing more children with nervousness, more with insomnia, more with chest and stomach pains,” said Madrid paediatrician Alicia Arévalo.

She stressed, however, that these cases were a minority. “I have families telling me that they’re rebuilding relationships now that day-to-day life has calmed,” she said, citing adolescents who said they were speaking more to their parents or engaging in more family time with activities such as baking or painting.

That may be the case for some children, said Freire. But she warned against any generalisation, noting that the situation risks exacerbating existing inequalities. “You can’t compare a child that lives in a 600-metre square house with a backyard with a child that lives in a 30- or 50-metre square apartment without a balcony,” she said. “You can’t compare parents who have no economic problems with children whose parents have been temporarily laid off, or who have lost their jobs.”

She argued that the issue was fundamentally one of human rights. “By law, children have the right to fresh air, sunlight, movement, play and contact with other children,” she said. “In my view, a society that doesn’t put its children ahead of everything – that doesn’t ensure their needs are met – is sliding back towards barbarism. It’s completely inhumane.”