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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

UNICEF Innocenti's curated library of COVID-19 + Children research

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There should always be a free lunch: the impact of COVID-19 lockdown suspension of the mid-day meal on nutriture of primary school children in Karnataka, India

AUTHOR(S)
Prashanth Thankachan; Sumithra Selvam; Agnita R. Narendra (et al.)

Published: July 2022   Journal: BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 resulted in school closures with eventual suspension of the mid-day meal programme, biannual deworming and iron–folic acid supplements. One year into the lockdown, we evaluated the impact of the withdrawal of these programmes on the nutritional status of rural primary-school children, aged 6–12 years, in Karnataka, India.  Anthropometry, haemoglobin, serum ferritin and C reactive protein were measured in 290 children at two time points, 1 year apart, starting from just before the lockdown (February 2020 to February 2021).

Evidence and gap map research brief: UNICEF strategic plan 2018–2021: COVID-19 special evidence brief
Institution: *UNICEF
Published: June 2022
This research brief is one of a series of six briefs, which provide an overview of available evidence shown in the Campbell-UNICEF Mega-Map of the effectiveness of interventions to improve child well-being in low- and middle-income countries. Five of these briefs summarize evidence as mapped against the five goal areas of UNICEF’s 2018–2021 Strategic Plan. A sixth special brief was added to focus specifically on COVID-19 and other epidemics and major crises. It is anticipated that the briefs will also be useful for others working in the child well-being space.
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among minoritised youth in Cleveland, Ohio, United States

AUTHOR(S)
Jillian Schulte; Megan Schmidt-Sane; Elizabeth Benninger (et al.)

Published: May 2022
Despite progress in COVID-19 vaccination rates overall in Cleveland, vaccine inequity persists as young people from minoritised communities are often less likely to be vaccinated. Despite being over-represented in COVID-19 case counts and fatalities, Black residents were under-represented in COVID-19 vaccination during the first year and half of the pandemic. In Ohio, while roughly 60% of Cuyahoga County residents are fully vaccinated, just 45% of Cleveland residents are fully vaccinated. Lower-income, majority Black, east side neighbourhoods have markedly lower vaccination rates compared to higher-income, mostly white neighbourhoods. Young people ages 16-40 became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on March 29th, 2021, and individuals aged 12 and above were able to get vaccinated from May 2021 onward. However, large disparities exist based age, race, and zip code. This brief illustrates underlying reasons shaping COVID-19 vaccine attitudes among minority (especially Black and Latinx) youth (ages 12-18) and offers key considerations for how young people can be better engaged within Cleveland, Ohio. This brief is based on research, including in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 61 young people across 16 neighbourhoods through a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) approach in Cleveland to contextualise youth perspectives of COVID-19 vaccination and highlight areas of hesitancy and confidence.
Changes in e-cigarette use among youth and young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: insights into risk perceptions and reasons for changing use behavior

AUTHOR(S)
Morgane Bennett; Jessica Speer; Nathaniel Taylor (et al.)

Published: May 2022   Journal: Nicotine & Tobacco Research

This study assessed changes in e-cigarette use since the COVID-19 pandemic began and reasons for these changes among US youth and young adults. It combined data from two cross-sectional samples of youth and young adult (15–24 years) participants of a monthly surveillance study (data collected in April and June 2021). Analyses were restricted to past-year e-cigarette users who reported using e-cigarettes before the pandemic (n = 1762). Participants reported changes in e-cigarette use since the pandemic began, reasons for changing their behavior, and their perceptions around COVID-19 risk related to e-cigarette use. Multinomial logistic regression models assessed associations between demographics and COVID vaping risk perceptions and changes in e-cigarette use.

An analysis of the application of responsive relationship approaches in the assistance of children learning at home during the Covid 19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Aman Simaremare; Yasaratodo Wau; Trisnawati Hutagalung (et al.)

Published: May 2022
This study aims to find out the application of responsive relationship approaches carried out by parents in mentoring children learning from home during the covid-19 pandemic. This study was conducted at the Salsa School of Percut Sei Tuan District of Deliserdang Regency with research subjects as many as 30 parent-children who are members of the Salsa School Committee. The object of this study was a responsive relationship approach applied by parents in accompanying children to learn from home during the covid-19 pandemic. Techniques and instruments of research data collection were carried out through questionnaires, then research data is analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results showed that the average score in parental care applied a responsive relationship approach in mentoring early childhood from home 2.55 included the rare category. Meaning that the responsive relationship approach has not been done by parents with.
Assessing the damage: early evidence on impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on girls and women in Africa
Institution: The World Bank
Published: April 2022
At the onset of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there was global concern about the negative indirect impacts the crisis would have on girls and women and their human capital. Two years into the crisis, this brief summarizes the evidence to date on how the prediction of a shadow crisis has played out in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).The brief is intended as a call to action for policymakers, since available research sets off multiple alarm bells. It also proposes urgent policy responses. Evidence to date confirms that the COVID-19 crisis has had profound negative impacts on the education, health, employment and empowerment of girls and women including in SSA. Available data is still limited, but what is known to date suggests that we are seeing the tip of an iceberg. Many impacts will have long term repercussions for girls’ and women’s human capital. Decision makers are at a pivotal moment to invest now in women and girls, to neutralize immediate but also prolonged costs to individuals, societies and economies.
Learning loss or learning gain? A potential silver lining to school closures in Indonesia

AUTHOR(S)
Delbert Lim; Niken Rarasati; Florischa Tresnatri (et al.)

Institution: Research on Improving Systems of Education
Published: April 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected learning practices in Indonesia, decreasing the role of teachers as instructors and instead driving parents to replicate the classroom environment at home. Given a supportive home environment, some students, particularly those with low initial achievement, enjoyed learning gains during school closures, as parents were able to directly teach to their level. As schools reopen, students will benefit from continued additional support in their education from their household. It is also important to reintroduce a challenging curriculum to recover potential learning losses at the upper tail of the distribution
Gendered effects of COVID-19 school closures: Bangladesh case study
Institution: Population Council
Published: March 2022
Bangladesh’s education system met intensified challenges throughout the COVID-19 pandemic on top of the difficulties students have historically faced. A recent study on the impacts of COVID-19 school closures in rural communities in Bangladesh clarifies issues of remote learning access, management, and monitoring, as well as new strains on students’ time use. It also reveals general impacts on mental and physical health, economic status, as well as gendered effects including child marriage. Based on evaluations of mitigation measures, recommendations for comprehensive policies, provision of technical, financial, and social support, and improvements in education systems emerged.
Gendered effects of COVID-19 school closures: India case study
Institution: Population Council
Published: March 2022
With sudden school closures in 2020, about 250 million children in India from preschool through high school faced disruptions to their education. A case study assessed the gendered impact of COVID-19 school closures on education, health, well-being, and protection of adolescents in India. Based on surveys and interviews in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, findings point to the digital divide for girls as well as shared barriers to effective remote learning. Informed by the evidence, the study presents recommendations to scale up efforts to improve remote learning, reduce digital divide and strengthen teacher support, with a particular attention to addressing gendered differences.
Gendered effects of COVID-19 school closures: Kenya case study
Institution: Population Council
Published: March 2022
In Kenya, COVID-19 school closures escalated education inequalities especially for girls and young people in rural areas. These closures exacerbated adolescent mental health issues, food and economic insecurity, and experiences of violence. COVID-19 response programs implemented by both the Government of Kenya and non-state actors were not able to fully mitigate the impacts of school closures for adolescents, teachers, or schools. Continued efforts to understand the implications of school closures and to support vulnerable students are needed.
Gendered effects of COVID-19 school closures: Pakistan case study
Institution: Population Council
Published: March 2022
As schools closed and reopened throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a study was conducted to assess the gendered impacts of COVID-19 school closures on adolescent girls and boys in three districts in the province of Punjab. Data as well as discussions and interviews with adolescents, teachers, and parents shed light on difficulties in accessing and adjusting to remote learning, learning loss, deterioration of behaviors and health, and other effects. Based on these findings and further reflections by stakeholders on the successes and gaps of mitigation measures, the case study proposes recommendations for improved teacher training, digital access, alternative learning options, and a gendered focus in interventions.
Looking back on Nigeria’s COVID-19 school closures: effects of parental investments on learning outcomes and avoidance of hysteresis in education

AUTHOR(S)
Moses Ogenyi

Institution: Research on Improving Systems of Education
Published: March 2022

This insight note explores how COVID-19 and related school closures impacted Nigerian schools, parents, and students. National data collected by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2020 through a monthly phone survey show that children had extremely limited contact with the education system during this time, and that families preferred low-cost alternatives such as in-home tutoring and increased parental involvement in education to e-learning tools. Additional data collected by the RISE Nigeria Team in a survey of 73 low-cost private schools in Abuja suggest that some schools did maintain contact with students during mandated school closures, that students experienced absolute learning losses equivalent to about 5-6 months of school missed in other contexts (Cooper et al, 1996), despite participation in alternative learning activities, and that the pandemic led to severe financial hardships for schools and teachers.

Picture perfect during a pandemic? Body image concerns and depressive symptoms in U.S. adolescent girls during the COVID-19 lockdown

AUTHOR(S)
Sophia Choukas-Bradley; Anne J. Maheux; Savannah R. Roberts (et al.)

Published: February 2022   Journal: Journal of Children and Media
The stay-at-home orders of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted U.S. adolescents’ lives in numerous ways during the spring of 2020, including substantial changes to in-person routines and increased reliance on digital media. For adolescent girls, stay-at-home practices may have implications for body image concerns. This research brief examines adolescent girls’ pandemic-related body image concerns and longitudinal associations with depressive symptoms. The sample included 93 U.S. adolescent girls (Mage = 15.01; 68.8% White), with approximately 2/3 at temperamental risk for depression. Participants self-reported their depressive symptoms and pandemic-related body image concerns via online surveys at three assessments: Time 1 occurred in April/May 2020, approximately one month into stay-at-home orders, followed by two-week and seven-month follow-up assessments. Two pandemic-related body image concerns were assessed: (1) concerns about disrupted appearance-management routines and (2) evaluating one’s appearance on video-chat.
Scaling education innovations for impact in low- and middle-income countries during COVID

AUTHOR(S)
Brad Olsen

Published: December 2021

Interest in scaling promising innovations to effect systemic change in education around the world has grown over the last decade. Scaling has become fashionable because the modern landscape of educational improvement is littered with short-term projects that temporarily succeeded only to later dissipate, isolated pursuits that never crossed into broad adoption, or specialized policy programs that floundered. Moving beyond 20th-century technical-rational implementation and acknowledging the mixed history of global development in low-and middle-income countries, newer iterations of scaling have sought to collaboratively embed promising education ideas and technologies into whole systems. Increased recognition of the interconnectedness of culture, governments, global development architecture, and the learning sciences has reframed education scaling as a holistic process of mutual adaptation and collective transformation. Lasting impact has replaced size or scope as the goal. As a result, this past decade of scaling and research has offered hope and possibility—even as it has also underscored the sometimes maddening complexity of this work.

How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect births?
Institution: United Nations Population Fund
Published: December 2021
Based on available reported data from UNFPA and the Short Term Fertility Fluctuation (STFF) study to date, there are no signs of dramatic increases or decreases in fertility due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Short term effects were observed in a range of highly developed countries but these reverted to pre-pandemic levels and trends shortly after. Data from low and middle income countries suggest similarities to those of many developed countries, with short term declines in births and subsequent recoveries. In this report, data from 15 countries sheds light on how the Covid-19 pandemic may affect births.

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UNICEF Innocenti's Children and COVID-19 Library is a database collecting research from around the world on COVID-19 and its impacts on children and adolescents.

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COVID-19 & Children: Rapid Research Response

UNICEF Innocenti is mobilizing a rapid research response in line with UNICEF’s global response to the COVID-19 crisis. The initiatives we’ve begun will provide the broad range of evidence needed to inform our work to scale up rapid assessment, develop urgent mitigating strategies in programming and advocacy, and preparation of interventions to respond to the medium and longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. The research projects cover a rapid review of evidence, education analysis, and social and economic policies.