Children and COVID-19 Research Library

This is a brief introduction to four papers examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the continuum of integrated infant and early childhood mental health services offered across hospital and community settings. The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted the delivery of perinatal, infant, and early childhood behavioral health services. Perinatal and early childhood integrated behavioral health services ensured access to early childhood and family mental health services, adapted service delivery to meet the needs of the populations being served and comply with public health guidelines, and promoted appropriate utilization of preventive, primary care, and hospital services for populations with and without medical complexity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Poor learning remains a central challenge in Bangladesh despite considerable progress in advancing schooling access and reducing gender gaps in education. The learning crisis is feared to have been exacerbated during extended school closures and limited alternative opportunities for schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief summarizes findings on learning loss among adolescent girls during the pandemic in rural Bangladesh.

This paper aims to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a remote-based nutrition education program during COVID-19 for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Ten adolescents with ASD participated in a 4-week nutrition education program utilizing Zoom software during COVID-19. Topics included shopping for healthy food, and food preparation safety measures. Attendance was collected for each session. Participants, parents, and the classroom teacher completed post-program surveys and interviews. The course attendance rate was 97%. Every adolescent reported they would participate in similar future programs, and the teacher/parents felt the program was a positive experience for the participants. The remote-based nutrition education program appeared to be feasible and acceptable to participants. Future research should focus on program efficacy.

This brief summarizes the key findings of the assess[1]ment of the availability of data that could contribute to an understanding of the gendered impacts of COVID-19 and would be the basis for gender-responsive, evidence[1]based policy making in Uzbekistan. The assessment was conducted in December 2020 with the support of the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office in partnership with UNDP Uzbekistan. The focus of the assessment was on data and statistics compiled and disseminated by the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistics (SSC) and on recent assessments and studies related to the impact of COVID-19 that have been conducted by different United Nations (UN) organi[1]zations and development partners.

The return to face-to-face learning helps children return to a sense of normality, although different normality as prevention and control measures have likely altered school and classroom routines. It is important that schools should have a risk-mitigation strategy in place. Countries should ensure these strategies carefully balance the likely benefits for, and harms to, younger and older age groups of children when making decisions about implementing infection prevention and control measures. Any measure needs to be balanced with the even worse alternative of schools being closed and Any measure introduced by schools should follow standard protocols for implementation. This publication shares more detailed considerations for health and educational authorities on the public health and social measures to reopen schools as safely as possible.

A snapshot survey carried out by Save the Children in 6 countries where schools have reopened, suggests that 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, significant numbers of the most vulnerable children are still out of school. This is not because of fear of the virus, but a result of child labour, child marriage, financial hardship, relocation and other consequences of the pandemic - and girls are particularly at risk. These briefs summarise the “out-of-school” context in these 6 countries – Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Somalia, and Uganda.

As in many countries worldwide, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its containment measures aggravated poverty in Bangladesh. Poor and vulnerable population groups were among the hardest hit.  This brief draws on key findings from a UNDP Bangladesh survey on COVID-19 impacts during the pandemic’s first wave in early 2020. It covered 2,500 UNDP beneficiary households (HHs) across the country. In addition to severe income shocks, analysis reveals that the crisis amplified existing multidimensional vulnerabilities among HHs. Existing social safety net (SSN) programmes were inadequate to address different vulnerabilities. Against this backdrop, this brief underscores the need for Bangladesh’s continued attention on reforming its social protection system to make it more employment-focused, shock-responsive and universal in line with national priorities and for COVID recovery.

The purpose of this research is to use text and chat transcripts from a national child helpline to examine how children perceive, identify, and describe caregiver stress during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Discrimination against Asians and Asian Americans increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, even prior to the pandemic, little research explored the experiences of Asian American families of children with autism and other developmental disabilities. This brief report summarizes the results of a survey conducted between May and July 2020, in the immediate aftermath of state and local lockdowns due to the pandemic. Twenty-five Asian American caregivers of children with autism and other developmental disabilities completed the survey and reported on the pandemic’s impact on their household. Most of the caregivers were mothers, immigrants, Chinese, raising children with autism, and highly educated. Participants’ primary concerns were the disruption of their children’s educational and therapeutic services. We discuss research limitations and implications.

Schoolchildren around the world have lost an estimated 1.8 trillion hours – and counting – of in-person learning since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. As a result, young learners have been cut off from their education and the other vital benefits schools provide. Every hour in school is precious, and every child should be given the opportunity to go back to school. As countries return from academic break, no effort should be spared to reopen schools, as schools are critical for children’s learning, safety, health and well-being.

As of August 12, Iraq had registered 1.74 million cases of COVID-19 and 19,402 deaths from COVID-19. As of August 6, the country had administered 2.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Just over 1% of Iraq’s population is fully vaccinated. As vaccination efforts continue, it is critical to increase people’s confidence in vaccines to ensure they are willing to take the vaccines as they become available. Giving people the information they need to feel safe taking vaccines in a format that is useful for them is key to successfully combatting COVID in Iraq. CARE Iraq conducted a study with 3,770 people (2,067 men and 1,703 women) in Ninewa and Duhok in mid-July 2021. The data specifically looks at the needs of marginalized people, and covers refugee, internally displaced people (IDPs), returnee, and host communities in several districts in each governorate.

This brief country study draws out key findings on the impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19, in project locations in Tanzania. The overall research aims are to discern broader drivers of mental ill-health and the preventative factors that can protect mental well-being of adolescents. The project also seeks to capture wider attitudes towards accessing mental health support, rather than charting the impacts on well-being of a particular crisis. While Covid-19 was not the focus of this project, given that data collection started during the onset of the pandemic, in-country researchers were able to incorporate some questions into the qualitative component of the mixed method baseline study, exploring the effects Covid-19 was having on the mental health of adolescents. This project continues to adapt to the new context and will seek to understand the impact of the pandemic where feasible

This country case study examines the impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19, in project locations in Viet Nam. The overall research aims are to discern broader drivers of mental ill-health and the preventative factors that protect mental well-being of adolescents. The project also seeks to capture wider attitudes towards accessing mental health support, rather than charting the impacts on well-being of a particular crisis.

Malagasy adolescents face severe challenges in accessing and completing basic education. Among those students who complete the primary cycle, one in four does not transition into lower secondary school. Economic constraints among vulnerable households coupled with low-quality education result in widespread dropout and poor learning outcomes.

Acknowledging these multidimensional barriers, UNICEF Madagascar leveraged funds from the Let us Learn (LUL) programme to implement a two-pronged strategy to support Malagasy children in accessing and continuing lower secondary school. The Catch-up Classes provide out-of-school adolescents with a learning pathway to build the foundational literacy and numeracy skills they need to resume studying in formal school. Conditional cash transfers target families with children who are at risk of abandoning school after completing the primary cycle.

This brief builds on programme monitoring data, impact evaluations and qualitative insights from the field to highlight lessons learnt and actionable recommendations for accessing and continuing vulnerable children’s secondary education.

In April 2020, the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) Research Academy and the ESCAP Board launched the first questionnaire of the CovCAP longitudinal survey to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) services in Europe. This brief report presents the main findings from the second questionnaire of the survey, one year after the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit Europe (i.e., February/March 2021).