Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of children, adolescents, and their parents. This study aimed to assess the emotional and behavioural changes in children and adolescents and their association with parental depression during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. On 7 May 2020 during COVID-19 lockdown, an online questionnaire was distributed through social media and made available for 10 days. Data were collected from parents of children aged 4 to 17 years. The Bangla version of the parent-rated version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used to determine the behavioural and emotional disturbances of the children and adolescents. The Bangla version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to assess the depression status of parents.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) requires mass immunization to control the severity of symptoms and global spread. Data from developed countries have shown a high prevalence of parental COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. However, parental vaccine hesitancy data in low- and middle-income countries are scarce. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of parental vaccine hesitancy and identify subgroups with higher odds of vaccine hesitancy in parents in Bangladesh. A cross-sectional study was conducted on the parents of children aged <18 years from October 10, 2021 to October 31, 2021. Parents participated in face-to-face interviews in randomly selected locations in Bangladesh using a vaccine hesitancy questionnaire. Factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy were identified using binary logistic regression analysis.

Little is known about parental coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine hesitancy in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). This survey estimated the prevalence and predictive factors of vaccine hesitancy among parents of children with NDD. A nationally representative cross-sectional survey was conducted from October 10 to 31, 2021. A structured vaccine hesitancy questionnaire was used to collect data from parents aged ≥ 18 years with children with NDD. In addition, individual face-to-face interviews were conducted at randomly selected places throughout Bangladesh. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify the predictors of vaccine hesitancy.

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.

From August 2017, the largest wave of Rohingya refugees crossed the Myanmar border into Bangladesh, fleeing crimes that the UN Special Rapporteur has claimed ‘bear the hallmarks of genocide’. Over 880,000 displaced Rohingya now live in 32 makeshift and 2 registered refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district, one of Bangladesh’s poorest regions, where 1.36 million people – comprising both refugees and host community residents – remain in need of humanitarian assistance. This brief draws on mixed-methods data collected both before and after the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from younger (aged 10–14) and older (aged 15–19) cohorts at baseline, our research captures the voices of Rohingya and Bangladeshi adolescents and their views on everyday life, including the structural and socio-cultural constraints they face and whether they are being left behind.

Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in social and economic development in recent decades, which contributed to the country attaining middle-income status in 2015. While the country’s educational advancements are noteworthy – net enrolment rates in school have converged towards gender parity and literacy rates have improved – entrenched obstacles related to educational transitions for adolescents persist. In Bangladesh, GAGE has collected mixed-methods baseline data from a school-based sample in Chittagong and Sylhet divisions, as well as virtual data collected at various intervals during the covid-19 pandemic. Quantitative baseline data was collected from 2,220 adolescents attending grades 7 and 8 in 109 public (government) and semi-private (monthly pay order (MPO)) schools in February and March 2020; and qualitative baseline data was collected by phone from 100 adolescents, parents and teachers between August and September 2020. This brief highlights headline emerging findings and provides links to more comprehensive publications.

Although there is a growing evidence base on the drivers of child marriage, comparatively little is known about the experiences of married girls in refugee settings and how their development trajectories diverge from those of their nonmarried peers, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on cross-national panel data from Bangladesh and Jordan, this article explores diversity in child marriage experiences in contexts affected by forced displacement, highlighting how married girls’ well-being differs from that of their unmarried peers, and how COVID-19 has reinforced these differences.

The Government of Bangladesh imposed a movement control order as a mass quarantine strategy to control the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Adherence to the home quarantine may put children at risk by missing routine vaccination. This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on child routine immunization in a rural area of Bangladesh and consider the broader implications. Data for this study comes from the Chakaria Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) of icddr,b with a population of 90,000 people residing in 16,000 households in 49 villages in a rural, coastal area of Southeast Bangladesh. The study used an explanatory sequential mixed methods design which involved two phases between March 1, 2020, and May 31, 2020: first, we observed 258 outreach sessions of 86 EPI centers. It calculated the number of Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) outreach sessions suspended and the number of children who missed their routine vaccination due to the COVID-19. It extrapolated the number of Bangladeshi children who missed their routine vaccination using Chakaria HDSS observations. Secondly, in-depth interviews to explain the quantitative results were conducted.

Like many countries, the government of Bangladesh also imposed stay-at-home orders to restrict the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (COVID-19) in March, 2020. Epidemiological studies were undertaken to estimate the early possible unforeseen effects on maternal mortality due to the disruption of services during the lockdown. Little is known about the constraints faced by the pregnant women and community health workers in accessing and providing basic obstetric services during the pandemic in the country. This study was conducted to explore the lived experience of pregnant women and community health care providers from two southern districts of Bangladesh during the pandemic of COVID-19. The study participants were recruited through purposive sampling and non-structured in-depth interviews were conducted. Data was collected over the telephone from April to June, 2020. The data collected was analyzed through a phenomenological approach.

Like most other countries around the world, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the education system in Bangladesh has gone through a radical change from the beginning of March 2020 onwards. The study attempts to analyse teachers’, students’ and parents’ perceptions and experiences about the online education in the COVID-19 pandemic at the school level. To fulfil the research objectives, the study selects some private schools (kindergarten to high school) in the Chattogram District of Bangladesh. The study strongly advocates for making the online classes more effective and inclusive for all. There is a need to bring a strategic change from the course curriculum to the teaching process and ensure an amalgamation of all types of interventions (online and offline classes) for online learning activities through a unified policy direction.

This article describes the socio-psychological efects of school closure on school-going urban girls in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It illustrates the life of urban students in Bangladesh during the school-closing time and relates it to their previous normal life. It asserts that the strengths of traditional schools have important relevance to socialization, which was signifcantly disturbed during the pandemic due to home confnement. Based on both qualitative and quantitative data, the following components led to an understanding of the schools’ role in the socialization of urban female students in Bangladesh: emotional attachments, interpersonal interactions, and physical activity. During confnement, the absence of these components put the students’ socialization process at risk, resulting in socio-psychological changes in activities and behavioral patterns. Finally, the article recommends not considering online classes as the “new normal”; working toward vaccination and obtaining suitable health equipment for the reopening of traditional schools will do more to ensure the socio-psychological health of future generations.

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 research study evaluates the impact of the COVID-19 emergency on Save the Children’s use of feedback from adults and children in Bangladesh. It examines the impact of Covid-19 and the ways in which approaches to feedback inform Save the Children’s decision-making at a time of particular global challenge. The report’s findings are intended to serve as a useful, rapidly-realised tool for organisational learning and to support Save the Children as it continues to serve displaced populations in Bangladesh and globally.