Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The expansion of the UK’s support for families with children from the late 1990s was put into reverse over the decade from 2010. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore, parents may have felt that they had less support from the government and increased private responsibility in bringing up the next generation. Drawing on qualitative interviews with parents in England and Scotland claiming Universal Credit, this article analyses parenting experiences for low-income families during the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular concerning the costs of looking after children, caring for children, and family relationships/mental health.

Capacity for death awareness and death anxiety in young people has been previously documented but the impact of Covid-19 is not currently known. Therefore, the aim of this study of this study was to explore young people’s experiences and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Qualitative data was collected from young people via a two-stage process across the United Kingdom: Stage One consisted of an online questionnaire; Stage Two comprised online semi-structured interviews.

Little is known about the perceived acceptability and usefulness of supports that adolescents have accessed following self-harm, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to examine the utilization and acceptability of formal, informal, and online support accessed by adolescents following self-harm before and during the pandemic. Cross-sectional survey (OxWell) of 10,560 secondary school students aged 12–18 years in the south of England. Information on self-harm, support(s) accessed after self-harm, and satisfaction with support received were obtained via a structured, self-report questionnaire. No tests for significance were conducted.

‘Long COVID’ describes both ongoing symptomatic COVID-19 (5–12 weeks after onset) and post-COVID-19 syndrome (≥12 weeks after onset). Long COVID is also a patient-preferred term so will be used throughout this editorial to describe symptoms lasting ≥4 weeks after an acute episode of COVID-19. As the phenomenon of long COVID emerged and came to be recognised, including with the publication of the guideline by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network, and the Royal College of General Practitioners, there was still limited evidence about whether children and young people could suffer with prolonged symptoms following an acute COVID-19 infection. The general opinion was still that SARS-CoV-2 was a mild infection in the young.

The aim of this study was to explore children's experience and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic through their illustrations and short narrations. During October 2020 and January 2021 data was collected from thirteen children aged 9–10 years old in a primary school in the North-West of England. Children were asked to draw their thoughts and feelings about the pandemic and to write a short narration to accompany the drawing. Thematic analysis of data revealed that during the pandemic children at this age have an understanding of death, experience death anxiety and are able to use creative expression to facilitate meaning of the impact of lockdown on their lives such as feeling isolated, lonely, sad and bored. Creative expression also facilitated adaptive coping mechanisms derived from being able to spend more time with family. The data on primary school children is part of a larger study which involved surveys and interviews with children aged 12–16 years in secondary schools.

For older adolescents, the COVID-19 pandemic and UK restrictions arrived during a critical period in the transition to adulthood. Early research exploring impact of the pandemic paints a picture of worsened adolescent wellbeing and mental health. This study explores the subjective experiences of 16- to 19-year-olds during the first UK lockdown, with an emphasis on wellbeing and coping, to complement quantitative evidence and inform strategies and provision for support. In May 2020, UK-based 16- to 19-year-olds were invited to share written accounts of their experiences of the initial UK lockdown for The TELL Study. A total of 109 participants engaged, submitting anonymous written accounts via an online survey portal. We used inductive reflexive thematic analysis to develop rich experiential themes.

Part 1 of this UK-based study, across four timepoints between March and October 2020, autistic children and young people showed higher levels of parent-reported depression and anxiety symptoms than those with other special educational needs and disabilities. This study draws on qualitative data from 478 parents/carers of autistic pupils and those with other special educational needs and disabilities to conduct a longitudinal qualitative content analysis examining stability and change in the mental health of these young people, and their parents/carers, during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Worry and psychological distress were dominant categories at all timepoints and it was noted that, in line with quantitative findings, worry in autistic pupils stayed stable over time but decreased for those with other special educational needs and disabilities. The third dominant category was wellbeing and there was evidence that removing demands, especially the demand to attend school, was a driver of wellbeing for a significant minority of pupils, particularly autistic pupils, and their parents/carers.

The COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS) is an anonymous, cross-sectional survey administered online. PHS developed the survey to address a gap in the evidence base about wider impacts of the pandemic on young children and their families in Scotland. To date, there have been three rounds of the survey completed. Round 1 in June/July 2020, Round 2 in November/December 2020 and Round 3 in September/October 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unexpected and major global event, with the potential to have many and varied impacts on child development. However, the implications of the pandemic for maternal depressive symptoms, early childhood temperament dimensions, and their associations, remain largely unknown. To investigate this, questionnaires were completed by mothers (N = 175) before and during the pandemic when their child was 10- and 16-months old (Study 1), and by an extended group of mothers with young children (6–48 months; 66 additional mothers) during the first and second national lockdowns in the United Kingdom in 2020 (Study 2).

This paper explores changes to school food standards from 2010, free school meal provision during the COVID-19 pandemic across the UK and potential implications for children's diets. To obtain information on UK school food policies and free school meal provision methods  several sources were reviewed, including news articles, policy documents and journal articles. School food is an important part of the UK's health agenda and commitment to improving children's diets. Each UK nation has food-based standards implemented, however, only Scotland and Wales also have nutrient-based standards. School food standards in each nation have been updated in the last decade. Universal free school meals are available for children in the first 3 years of primary school in England and the first 5 years of primary school in Scotland, with plans announced for implementation of free school meals for all primary schoolchildren in Scotland and Wales. There is a lack of consistent monitoring of school food across the UK nations, and a lack of reporting compliance to the standards.

It is theorised that adventurous play offers learning opportunities that help to prevent mental health problems in children. In this study, data from two samples is used to examine associations between the time that children aged 5–11 years spent playing adventurously and their mental health. For comparison, time spent playing unadventurously and time spent playing outdoors are also examined. Study 1 includes a sample of 417 parents, Study 2 includes data from a nationally representative sample of 1919 parents. Small, significant associations between adventurous play and internalising problems, as well as positive affect during the first UK-wide Covid-19 lockdown, were found; children who spend more time playing adventurously had fewer internalising problems and more positive affect during the Covid-19 lockdown. Study 2 showed that these associations were stronger for children from lower income families than for children from higher income families.

Restrictions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic reduced physical activity provision for both children and their parents. Recent studies have reported decreases in physical activity levels during lockdown restrictions, but these were largely reliant on self-report methods, with data collected via unrepresentative self-report surveys. The post-pandemic impacts on children’s activity levels remain unknown. A key question is how active children become once lockdown restrictions are lifted. Active-6 is a repeated cross-sectional natural experiment. Accelerometer data from 1296 children aged 10–11 and their parents were collected in 50 schools in the Greater Bristol area, UK in March 2017-May 2018 (pre-COVID-19 comparator group), and compared to 393 children aged 10–11 and parents in 23 of the same schools, collected in May-December 2021. Mean minutes of accelerometer-measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were derived for weekdays and weekend and compared pre- and post-lockdown via linear multilevel models.

There is a need to understand and mitigate the psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for children known to be vulnerable. Data from prior to the pandemic are required to provide robust assessments of the socio-emotional impacts of COVID-19 and identify those who are more vulnerable. This study capitalises on an ongoing UK study of primary school children (4–8 years) identified prior to the pandemic as “at risk” for mental health problems by teachers. It collected mental health and social-emotional functioning data prior to the pandemic (Time 1) and re-assessed this cohort (N = 143) via researcher-led videocalls during lockdown (Time 2, summer 2020) and post-lockdown, 12 months later (Time 3; summer 2021).

The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) reported an increase in the prevalence of children in Reception (4-5 years) and Year 6 (10-11 years) with overweight/obesity during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic compared to the previous year. This longitudinal analysis aims to compare weight status before and during the pandemic. Ite compared the change in overweight/obesity status of children in Year 1 (Y1) (during the pandemic) who had also been measured as part of the NCMP in Reception (the year before the pandemic), with the change in a sample of children during a two-year ‘pre-pandemic’ period.

This study aimed to identify research priorities for future research on screen use and adolescent mental health, from the perspectives of young people, parents/carers, and teachers. The study design was informed by the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership approach. A three-stage consensus-based process of consultation to identify research priorities using qualitative and quantitative methods. Research was guided by a steering group comprising researchers, third sector partners, clinicians, parents/carers and young people. A Young People’s Advisory Group contributed at each stage.