Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has impacted families’ mental health around the globe. In June 2020, 1163 parents of high (43%), middle (47%), and low socioeconomic status (SES) (10%) participated in an online survey developed to explore how daily life changes and restrictions that came with COVID-19 affected the experiences of pregnancy and/or parenting children under the age of 5 in Chile. The survey's design had an exploratory and descriptive scope, with a mix of qualitative and quantitative questions. With the aim of exploring differences before and after COVID-19, two time periods were established, and the 47-item questionnaire covered participants’ sociodemographic information, support networks, health concerns, mood changes, self-regulation, adult and children's perceived well-being, parental competencies and parents’ perceptions of the unborn baby and/or their children's needs.

Lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced feeding behaviour and lifestyle in children and adolescents. The purpose of this study was to analyse feeding behaviour and lifestyle in children and adolescents one year after lockdown by the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile. In this cross-sectional study an online survey was implemented in 1083 parents and caregivers regarding their children’s feeding behaviour and lifestyle and sociodemographic background. The results showed that “eat breakfast daily” (89.2%), “not overnight food intake” (69.9%) and “not fast-food intake” (66.0%) were the most frequent reported feeding behaviours, particularly in pre-school children. Respondents declaring healthy feeding behaviours and lifestyle were 23.4 and 23.7%, respectively, with no significant differences by sex. In pre-school children, families with three or fewer members and parents or caregivers with an undergraduate or postgraduate degree reported a significantly better feeding behaviour and lifestyle compared to families with more than three members and parents or caregivers without an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. In conclusion, the pandemic lockdown had a negative impact in lifestyle in children and particularly in adolescents. Healthier feeding behaviour was associated with fewer family members and parents or caregivers with at least an undergraduate degree.

Organizational support goes beyond the work domain, supporting workers' family role and thus generating resources that lead to work-to-family enrichment. Workers may invest these resources in improving their, and their family's, diet quality. However, data on the link between work resources, enrichment and diet quality during the COVID-19 pandemic is still emerging. The present study contributes to this literature by exploring the actor and partner effects between perceived workplace support for families, work-to-family enrichment, and diet quality in different-sex dual-earner parents with adolescent children; the potential mediating role of work-to-family enrichment between perceived workplace support for families and diet quality was also explored. A sample of 430 different-sex dual-earner parents and one of their adolescent children (mean age 13.0 years, 53.7% female) were recruited in Rancagua, Chile, during March and June 2020.

COVID-19 pandemic increases the risk of an inadequate micronutrient intake and therefore, the risk of double burden of malnutrition in countries with high obesity prevalence. An adequate nutritional status, including micronutrient status is critical for pregnancy and offspring development; however, there is a lack of evidence regarding maternal dietary micronutrient intake and its relationship with BMI in the COVID-19 era. Henceforth, this study sought to assess the adequacy of maternal dietary micronutrient intake and its relationship with BMI in pregnant women exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing the world into a devastating economic and social scenario. The consequences of this crisis largely impact children and teenagers, both now and in the future. School closures have particularly affected vulnerable children, deepening the effects of their unequal socio-economic circumstances. In this context, the actions governments are taking to protect their citizens’ right to education will be crucial to reducing or exacerbating inequality in the long term. The authors of this article analyse the case of Chile, one of the most successful countries in Latin America regarding educational achievement and enrollment, as well as the most segregated educational system among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The quick spread of COVID‐19 has caused part of the world's population to adopt quarantine protocols that have limited professional activities, including dental training programmes. This study aimed to explore the experiences of students and personnel at a Chilean dental school during the COVID‐19 pandemic.

The aim was to examine the sociodemographic predictors associated with changes in movement behaviors (physical activity, screen time, and sleep) among toddlers and preschoolers during the early stages of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Chile. Caregivers of 1- to 5-year old children completed an online survey between 30 March and 27 April 2020. Information about the child’s movement behaviors before (retrospectively) and during the pandemic, as well as family characteristics were reported. In total, 3157 participants provided complete data (mean children age: 3.1 ± 1.38 years).

Evidence on whether the amount of time children spend online affects their mental health is mixed. There may be both benefits and risks. Yet, almost all published research on this topic is from high‐income countries. This paper presents new findings across four countries of varying wealth.

We analyse data gathered through the Global Kids Online project from nationally representative samples of Internet‐using children aged 9 to 17 years in Bulgaria (n  = 1,000), Chile (n  = 1,000), Ghana (n  = 2,060) and the Philippines (n  = 1,873). Data was gathered on Internet usage on week and weekend days. Measures of absolute (comparable across countries) and relative (compared to other children within countries) time use were constructed. Mental health was measured by Cantril’s ladder (life satisfaction). The analysis also considers the relative explanatory power on variations in mental health of children’s relationships with family and friends. Analysis controlled for age, gender and family socioeconomic status.

In Bulgaria and Chile, higher‐frequency Internet use is weakly associated with lower life satisfaction. In Ghana and the Philippines, no such pattern was observed. There was no evidence that the relationship between frequency of Internet use and life satisfaction differed by gender. In all four countries, the quality of children’s close relationships showed a much stronger relationship with their life satisfaction than did time spent on the Internet.

Time spent on the Internet does not appear to be strongly linked to children’s life satisfaction, and results from one country should not be assumed to transfer to another. Improving the quality of children’s close relationships offers a more fruitful area for intervention than restricting their time online. Future research could consider a wider range of countries and links between the nature, rather than quantity, of Internet usage and mental health.