Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Social distancing, home confinement, economic challenges, and COVID-19-related illness and deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic can significantly affect mental health in youth. One promising approach to reduce anxiety and depression in adolescents is the neuroscience-based mindfulness intervention Training for Awareness, Resilience, and Action (TARA). The objective of this individually randomized waitlist-controlled trial (RCT) was (1) to test the feasibility of TARA, delivered partially over Zoom, and (2) to assess changes in the emotional wellbeing in healthy adolescents between the ages of 14–18 years old during the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty-one healthy adolescents were randomized to the TARA intervention or to the waitlist control group in February 2020, just before the start of the pandemic. The TARA group intervention was delivered in person for the first five sessions and remotely over Zoom for the remaining seven sessions due to the pandemic. The participants’ acceptability of TARA was assessed weekly using the Child Session Rating Scale (CSRS).

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has brought racial and ethnic inequity into sharp focus, as Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic people were reported to have greater clinical vulnerability. During the pandemic, priority was given to ongoing, reconfigured maternity and children’s healthcare. This study aimed to understand the intersection between race and ethnicity, and healthcare provision amongst maternity and children’s healthcare professionals, during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Methods A qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews (N = 53) was undertaken with maternity (n = 29; August-November 2020) and children’s (n = 24; June-July 2021) healthcare professionals from an NHS Trust in ethnically-diverse South London, UK. Data pertinent to ethnicity and race were subject to Grounded Theory Analysis, whereby data was subjected to iterative coding and interpretive analysis. Using this methodology, data are compared between transcripts to generate lower and higher order codes, before super-categories are formed, which are finally worked into themes. The inter-relationship between these themes is interpreted as a final theory.

Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, mental health care has largely transferred its services to online platforms, using videoconferencing (VC) or teletherapy. Within the field of family therapy, however, there is little evidence on the feasibility of using VC, especially when working with whole families at the edge of care. This study investigated the feasibility of remote Functional Family Therapy (FFT), using a mixed-method approach.

Restrictions on social and economic activities imposed by governments around the world in response to COVID-19, including the closure of schools and childcare facilities, have had a detrimental impact on children's mental health and wellbeing. Initial responses to support mental health during the pandemic have largely focussed on immediate support and crisis management. However, as governments plan for recovery from the pandemic it is important to focus on the wider determinants of children's mental health including their relationships and the environments and societies in which they live in order to prevent a future global mental health crisis. This narrative review draws on the Independent Children's Rights Impact Assessment on the response to COVID-19 in Scotland to evaluate how the measures implemented by the Scottish Government have impacted on children's rights related to the wider determinants of mental health. The review reflects on the indivisibility of both children's rights and the different aspects of children's lives, particularly when considering issues such as mental health. Using the Scottish context as an exemplar, it highlights the value of a rights-based framework for providing a holistic view that can inform preventative approaches to support better mental health among children in the future.

This paper addresses an identified gap in research during the COVID-19 pandemic: how the disruption impacted on pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) attending specialist (i.e., non-mainstream) settings in England. Estimates provided by around 200 special school and college leaders at two time points during the pandemic are used to provide overall estimates of the extent to which the pandemic and time spent out of school had on the academic and developmental progress of pupils in these settings.

This article discusses the unequal impact of Covid-19 on the lives of the children of survivors of modern slavery, child victims of exploitation and children at risk of exploitation in the UK. It draws on research that has analysed the risks and impacts of Covid-19 on victims and survivors of modern slavery. It explores how pandemic responses may have hindered these children's rights to education, food, safety, development and participation and representation in legal processes. It suggests that the pandemic should be used as an impetus to address inequalities that existed pre-Covid-19 and those that have been exacerbated by it.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the start of the academic year in September 2020 was a unique time for those transitioning to a new school. This study aimed to explore the experiences of parents who supported autistic children making a range of different school transitions in 2020. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 13 parents of autistic children in the UK, and data were analyzed with reflexive thematic analysis. For some parents, the Covid-19 pandemic negatively impacted on aspects of school transitions. However, other parents expressed the view that these same circumstances created opportunities to approach the school transition in a unique, improved manner. This article sheds light on the heterogeneity of experiences and perceptions of parents of autistic children, and highlights the need to examine the impact of Covid-19 on school transitions, including practices that it may be advantageous to retain.

The COVID-19 lockdowns (2020–2021) disrupted all aspects of usual functioning of the criminal justice system, the outcomes and impact of which are largely still unknown. The pandemic has affected individuals across the wider society, this includes a negative impact on the social circumstances of children and young people involved within youth offending services (YOS) (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, 2020; Criminal Justice Joint Inspectorates, 2021). This population frequently represents those from marginalised circumstances and are rarely given the opportunity to participate meaningfully in the services they are involved in. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of the young people serving orders with the YOS during Covid19 lockdowns and requirements. This paper outlines a creative methodology and method used to uncover the experiences and perceptions of young people undergoing an order within a YOS during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The arts-based approach entailed a novel and creative method using a lyric artist to engage with young people through a virtual platform, supporting them to create lyrics about their experiences of the YOS during this time.

The NHS response to covid-19 altered provision and access to primary care. This study aims to examine the impact of covid-19 on general practitioner (GP) contacts with children and young people in England. Longitudinal trends analysis using electronic health records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum database.

Previous developmental research shows that young children display a preference for ingroup members when it comes to who they accept information from – even when that information is false. However, it is not clear how this ingroup bias develops into adolescence, and how it affects responses about peers who misinform in intergroup contexts, which is important to explore with growing numbers of young people on online platforms. Given that the developmental span from childhood to adolescence is when social groups and group norms are particularly important, the present study took a Social Reasoning Developmental Approach. This study explored whether children and adolescents respond differently to a misinformer spreading false claims about a peer breaking COVID-19 rules, depending on (a) the group membership of the misinformer and their target and (b) whether the ingroup had a “critical” norm that values questioning information before believing it.

Strict lockdown measures were introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused mass disruption to adolescent swimmers’ daily routines. To measure how lockdown impacted nutritional practices in this cohort, three-day photograph food diaries were analysed at three time points: before (January), during (April), and after (September) the first UK lockdown. Thirteen swimmers (aged 15 ± 1 years) from a high-performance swimming club submitted satisfactory food diaries at all time points.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have disproportionately affected young people, and those who are vulnerable are disadvantaged further. Here, we seek to understand the experiences of vulnerable young people accessing Web-based therapeutic support during the pandemic and early lockdown, as revealed through the observations of mental health professionals. Four focus groups with 12 professionals from a digital mental health service were conducted to understand the experiences of vulnerable young people during the pandemic lockdown. Workshops with young people with diverse experiences resulted in the co-design of the focus group topic guide and the interpretation and validation of analysis. The experiential inductive–deductive framework of thematic analysis was used to analyse the workshop transcripts.

To understand how children and young people with tic disorders were affected by COVID-19, this study compared pre and during pandemic scores on the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS). Participants were young people (N = 112; male:78%; 9–17 years) randomised to the control arm of the “ORBIT-Trial” (ISRCTN70758207, ClinicalTrials.gov-NCT03483493). For this analysis, the control arm was split into two groups: one group was followed up to 12-months’ post-randomisation before the pandemic started (pre-COVID group, n = 44); the other group was impacted by the pandemic at the 12-month follow-up (during-COVID group, n = 47).

Emergency legislation introduced internationally since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic saw the closure of all levels of educational settings and a shift to remote teaching. Drawing lessons from an independent child rights impact assessment (CRIA) in Scotland, United Kingdom, this paper reviews the impact of COVID-19 measures on children and young people’s rights to, and experiences of, education during the current crisis. Findings highlight that while measures sought to preserve the best interests of children and their basic rights to safety, a distinct lack of consultation on the impacts of the measures undermined the interdependency and indivisibility of children’s human rights. Three human rights principles – participation and inclusion, non-discrimination, and mutual accountability of family and the State – were identified as being particularly significant in this assessment. Looking forward, findings point to the need for extending the range of perspectives involved in child rights impact assessments in times of crisis – where human rights are at even greater risk of being breached – and the significance of a children's rights-based perspective for re-imagining education altogether.

Using data from the UK, we show that girls have been affected more than boys by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of their mental wellbeing. These gender differences are more pronounced in lower-income families. Our results are consistent with previous findings of larger pandemic effects on mental health of women.