Children and COVID-19 Research Library

School-based COVID-19 mitigation strategies have greatly impacted the primary school day (children aged 3–11) including: wearing face coverings, two metre distancing, no mixing of children, and no breakfast clubs or extra-curricular activities. This study examines these mitigation measures and association with COVID-19 infection, respiratory infection, and school staff wellbeing between October to December 2020 in Wales, UK. A school staff survey captured self-reported COVID-19 mitigation measures in the school, participant anxiety and depression, and open-text responses regarding experiences of teaching and implementing measures. These survey responses were linked to national-scale COVID-19 test results data to examine association of measures in the school and the likelihood of a positive (staff or pupil) COVID-19 case in the school (clustered by school, adjusted for school size and free school meals using logistic regression). Linkage was conducted through the SAIL (Secure Anonymised Information Linkage) Databank.

Adolescents and young adults have been greatly affected by quarantine measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, but little is understood about how restrictions have affected their well-being, mental health, and social life. This study therefore aimed to learn more about how UK quarantine measures affected the social lives, mental health and well-being of adolescents and young adults. It is a qualitative interview study. The data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, with particular attention paid to contextual factors (such as age, gender, ethnicity and health status) when analysing each individual transcript. Data collection took place remotely across the UK via audio or video call, between June 2020 and January 2021.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescent carers in the UK may have experienced psychological distress due to increased caring burden and loss of a break from their caring role. This study investigated longitudinal association between adolescents’ caring status and mental health outcomes from 2018/2019 to February–March 2021. The participants (n = 3,927) answered mental health questions in both the Millennium Cohort Study sweep 7 survey (age 17 years in 2018/2019) and at least one of three waves of the COVID-19 survey from May 2020 to February–March 2021. Caring status at the age of 17 years was assessed using a single question regarding whether the participant regularly looked after anyone who needed care, without being paid. Outcome measures were psychological symptoms, measured using the Kessler Distress Scale, and mental well-being, measured using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale.

This study describes post-COVID symptomatology in a non-hospitalised, national sample of adolescents aged 11–17 years with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with matched adolescents with negative PCR status. In this national cohort study, adolescents aged 11–17 years from the Public Health England database who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between January and March, 2021, were matched by month of test, age, sex, and geographical region to adolescents who tested negative. 3 months after testing, a subsample of adolescents were contacted to complete a detailed questionnaire, which collected data on demographics and their physical and mental health at the time of PCR testing (retrospectively) and at the time of completing the questionnaire (prospectively).

Sleep is essential to young people’s wellbeing, yet may be constricted by the adolescent delayed sleep phase coupled with school start times. COVID-19 restrictions caused major disruptions to everyday routines, including partial school closures. This study set out to understand changes in students’ self-reported sleep quality, and associations with mental wellbeing and interpersonal functioning, during these restrictions. The OxWell school survey—a cross-sectional online survey—collected data from 18 642 children and adolescents (aged 8–19 years, 60% female, school year 4–13) from 230 schools in southern England, in June–July 2020. Participants completed self-report measures of the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on sleep quality, happiness, and social relationships. Sleep timing was compared with data collected from 4222 young people in 2019.

This study aimed to explore siblings' perceptions of having a brother or sister with congenital heart disease in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. Siblings of children with congenital heart disease aged 8–17 years old were interviewed via video call technology between September 2020 and February 2021.  A reflexive thematic analysis of these interviews to generate themes was conducted.

This qualitative study explored public attitudes to COVID-19 vaccines in children, including reasons for support or opposition to them. Qualitative study using online focus groups and interviews. Group and individual online interviews were conducted with a diverse sample of 24 adults in the United Kingdom to explore their views on the issue of COVID-19 vaccination in children. Data were analysed using a framework approach.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and national lockdowns took away opportunities for children to be physically active. This study aimed to determine the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on accelerometer-assessed physical activity (PA) in children in Wales. 800 participants (8–18 years old), stratified by sex, age, and socio-economic status, wore Axivity AX3 accelerometers for 7 days in February 2021, during the lockdown, and in May 2021, while in school. Raw accelerometer data were processed in R-package GGIR, and cut-point data, average acceleration (AvAcc), intensity gradient (IG), and MX metrics were extracted. Linear mixed models were used to assess the influence of time-point, sex, age, and SES on PA.