Children and COVID-19 Research Library

In March 2020, the WHO declared a pandemic (COVID-19) due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In France, school closures and lockdowns were implemented. In this unprecedented context for French adolescents and children, the CONFEADO study surveyed children aged 9 to 18 years to assess their mental health, psychological distress, and resilience during and after the lockdown in relation to their living and housing conditions. To assess psychological distress, a psychometric tool (Children and Adolescent Psychological Distress Scale-CAPDS-10) was specifically designed for the research. This article presents the psychometric validity of the CAPDS-10. This cross-sectional study collected data from June 9 to September 14, 2020, from children and adolescents (9 to 18 years of age) via an online questionnaire after sending it to a large network of partners. Psychological distress, resilience, and trait anxiety were assessed using the CAPDS-10, the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC). The CAPDS-10 measured perceived psychological distress in the most recent 2 weeks (primary endpoint). The predictive power of the CAPDS-10 was determined by statistical analysis.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a real disruption of children's lives. Children with neurodevelopmental disorders and their parents seem to be particularly vulnerable to adverse mental health effects due to lockdown policies. This study explores the psychological state of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and their parents during the first lockdown in France. A national prospective cross-sectional parent-reported study was conducted using an online survey disseminated through different social networks of French ADHD associations during the first lockdown. The survey consisted of open-ended, multiple-choice questions and standardized questionnaires such as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the coping self-report questionnaire (Brief COPE) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2). A total of 538 parents completed the online survey between the 6th and the 15th of April 2020.

The COVID-19 crisis in 2020 led to exceptional measures to contain the spread of the virus. In France as in many countries around the world, the government ordered a lockdown with school closure for several weeks. A growing number of studies suggest that family socio-economic status might be an important predictor of how families adapted to homeschooling during lockdown. However, socio-economic status is a distal factor that does not necessarily inform on the specific characteristics of the home learning environment that may more directly influence parental adaptation to homeschooling during lockdown. Here we aimed to examine how parental adaptation to homeschooling during lockdown was influenced by prior parental attitudes and expectations towards academic learning, as well as prior familiarity with literacy and numeracy activities at home. The present study involves 52 families who participated in a study about the home learning environment in 2018. At that time, parents completed an extensive questionnaire assessing their beliefs and attitudes towards academic learning and the frequency of literacy and numeracy activities are home. At the end of the first 2020 French lockdown, the same parents were asked to complete a questionnaire, this time assessing homeschooling conditions during lockdown as well as parental confidence towards academic domains.

Families with young children have faced serious challenges during the first lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to remote working, parents have had to monitor their children’s schoolwork and manage their daily lives. When one of the children also has neuro-developmental disorders, this results in an increased burden. We can therefore wonder how these families with one or more young children (under 6 years old) with special needs have experienced and dealt with this lockdown. In this context, the “COVJEUNENFANT” study focused more specifically on the subjective experience, as a parent, of those who cared for children with special needs (i.e., with developmental disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, proven disabilities or chronic health conditions) compared to the general population. It aimed to see if the consequences of the health crisis were significantly different from those perceived by respondents in the general population (n = 490) and if the sociodemographic structure of these families differed from those of other respondents.

Screen media use in early childhood has largely increased in recent years, even more so during the COVID-19 epidemic, and there is much discussion regarding its influence on neurodevelopment, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study examined the relationship between use of TV, computer, tablet and smartphone at age 2 years and risk of ASD assessed in telephone-based questionnaires among 12,950 children participating in the nationally representative ELFE (‘Etude Longitudinale Française sur les Enfants’) birth cohort study in France.

This article explores the consequences of the first COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020 in France on intra-family relationships and 9-year-old children's socio-emotional well-being. On 17th March 2020, France began a strict lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, with school closures and limited outings permitted until early June. All family routines and work-life arrangements were impacted. A major concern relates to how these measures impacted family and child well-being.

School closures, forcibly brought about by the COVID-19 crisis in many countries, have impacted children’s lives and their learning processes. The heterogeneous implementation of distance learning solutions is likely to bring a substantial increase in education inequality, with long term consequences. The present study uses data from a survey collected during Spring 2020 lockdown in France and Italy to analyze parents’ evaluations of their children’s home schooling process and emotional well-being at time of school closure, and the role played by different distance learning methods in shaping these perceptions.

COVID-19 lockdown measures resulted in children and adolescents staying and learning at home. This study investigated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and its associated factors among youth during the first lockdown. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 8- to 18-year-olds from the French Grand Est region. Sociodemographic data and information on living and learning conditions were collected using an online survey. HRQoL was assessed using the KIDSCREEN-27. Multiple regression analysis was performed to explore factors related to low HRQoL in each dimension.

The global COVID-19 pandemic prompted governments to impose unprecedented sanitary measures, such as social distancing, curfews, and lockdowns. In France and other countries, the first COVID-19 lockdown raised concerns about an increased risk of child abuse. Abusive head trauma (AHT) is one of the most serious forms of child abuse in children aged 0–24 months and constitutes the leading cause of death in children under 2 years of age. Subdural hemorrhage (SDH) is present in 89% of cases of AHT and constitutes one of the most specific, objective clinical presentations in the diagnosis of child abuse. This French nationwide study sought to evaluate the potential impact of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of hospital admissions for child abuse with SDH, relative to the two previous years. This study conducted a nationwide, retrospective study of data in the French national hospital discharge summary database by applying the International Classification of Diseases (10th Revision) codes for SDH and for child abuse.

Preterm children are at higher risk of developing mental health problems than full-term children. Deterioration of children’s mental health was observed during COVID-19 pandemic restrictive measures. This study compared emotional and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms during school closure between preterm and full-term children. Data from two French birth cohorts—ELFE and EPIPAGE-2—were used. In 2011, infants born ≥22 weeks’ gestation were recruited. Parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire when the children were 9 years old and experiencing school closure. Multivariate multinomial logistic regression models were used.

The first lockdown during COVID-19 pandemic in France led to an abrupt change in children's daily lives. For children with physical disabilities and their families, activities were limited, access to healthcare and therapy was disrupted, and family organization was altered. The objective was to report the impact of the lockdown on daily life activities and well-being of children with physical disabilities as perceived by caregivers. Two online national surveys were addressed to the parents of children with physical disabilities (ECHO survey: 6 April to 11 May 2020) and without disabilities (E-COPAIN survey: 24 April to 11 May 2020), confined at home during the lockdown. A lockdown impact score was calculated from difficulties related to children's well-being (morale, behaviour and social interaction) and daily life activities (schooling and physical activity) and compared between groups. Data on family environment, parental stress and concerns were collected.

The French health authorities extended vaccination against COVID-19 to adolescents in June 2021, during the epidemic resurgence linked to the delta variant and because of insufficient vaccination coverage to ensure collective protection. In May 2021, a national online cross-sectional survey of 2533 adults was conducted in France to study their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines and their acceptance of child/adolescent vaccination according to targeted age groups (<6 years; 6–11; 12–17) and its determinants. This study applied a multi-model averaged logistic regression for each of these age groups to study the determinants of favorability to vaccination. Among the respondents, 62.7% (1597) accepted COVID-19 vaccination for adolescents, 48.3% (1223) for children aged 6–11 years, and only 31% (783) for children under 6 years.