Children and COVID-19 Research Library

UNICEF Innocenti's curated library of COVID-19 + Children research

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Journal article

Children's representations of the COVID-19 lockdown and pandemic through drawings

AUTHOR(S)
Alessia Cornaggia; Federica Bianco; Gabriella Gilli (et al.)

Published: August 2022 Journal: Frontiers in Psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to face it have placed children and their caregivers in front of many challenges that could represent sources of stress. This work aims to explore the point of view of children through drawing, as a spontaneous means of expression, relating it to parents’ perceptions of children’s difficulties, strengths, and mentalization skills. The sample consists of 18 children (mean age = 8.22, SD = 1.79). Parents were asked to complete: a socio-demographic questionnaire with information on the impact of COVID-19 on the family, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Everyday Mindreading Scale. Children were asked to draw three moments: “Before” the pandemic, “During” the lockdown, and “After,” when the COVID-19 will be passed. The drawings were coded by constructing a content and expressive analysis grid, adapting coding systems found in the literature. Data were collected at the beginning of the summer of 2020, just after the first lockdown period (from March to May 2020 in Italy).

Journal article

Effectiveness of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in adolescents over 6 months

AUTHOR(S)
Emanuele Amodio; Dario Genovese; Luca Mazzeo (et al.)

Published: August 2022 Journal: Pediatrics

On June 4, 2021, Italy launched the COVID-19 vaccination of adolescents to pace down the COVID-19 spread. Although clinical trials have evaluated mRNA vaccine effectiveness in adolescents, there is limited literature on its real-world effectiveness. Accordingly, this study aimed to estimate the effectiveness of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 infection and mild or severe COVID-19 in a cohort of Sicilian adolescents within a six-month observation period. A retrospective cohort study was conducted with adolescents aged 12–18, residents of Sicily, that were followed from July 15 to December 31, 2021. SARS-CoV-2 infections, mild and severe COVID-19, and COVID-19-related intubation or deaths during the study period were compared between subjects vaccinated with two doses of mRNA vaccines and unvaccinated individuals. The Cox regression analysis, adjusted for age and sex, was performed to compare the two groups.

Journal article

Depressive anxiety symptoms in hospitalized children with chronic illness during the first Italian COVID-19 lockdown

AUTHOR(S)
Cinzia Correale; Chiara Falamesca; Ilaria Tondo (et al.)

Published: August 2022 Journal: Children

COVID-19 is continuing to spread around the world, having a direct impact on people’s daily lives and health. Although the knowledge of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in the general population is now well established, there is less information on its effect on specific and vulnerable populations, such as children with chronic illness (CI). This is a multi-centered cross-sectional study among pediatric patients in six public children’s hospitals in Italy during the first lockdown, with the aim of assessing the proportion of children with CI presenting anxiety and depressive symptoms, and the clinical and demographic characteristics affecting such symptomatology. It included children with at least one chronic condition, with no cognitive delay, aged between 11 and 18 years. Brief standardized questionnaires were administered during medical scheduled visits to screen anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Journal article

Investigating children's ability to express internal states through narratives and drawings: two longitudinal studies during pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Giulia Vettori; Costanza Ruffini; Martina Andreini (et al.)

Published: August 2022 Journal: Children

The COVID-19 pandemic emergency has challenged children’s socio-affective and cognitive development. It is essential to capture the modulation of their emotional experience through ecological and children-friendly tasks, such as written narratives and drawings. This contribution investigates the impact of pandemic experience (2020–2021 waves) on the internal states and emotions of the primary school age children, according to a longitudinal research approach through narratives (study 1 n = 21) and drawing tasks (study 2 n = 117). 138 Italian children were examined during COVID-19 three (study 1) or two waves (study 2). Children’s written narratives were codified on the basis of narrative competence and psychological lexicon. Children’s drawings were codified based on social/emotional, physical, and environmental elements.

Journal article

Educational television goes digital. Children's television and Italian public service broadcasting during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Paolo Carelli; Sfardini Anna

Published: August 2022 Journal: VIEW Journal

Since its origins in the Fifties, Rai has always paid attention to pedagogical aspects of its offer, consistent with its Catholic inspiration, combining different genres and divulgation approaches. In the first years of its history, Italian public television represented a “second school” for different targets, producing iconic titles in learning and training. A particular branch of educational approach to television content has often been represented by the direct involvement of school groups within the programs, in the logic of game and soft competition oriented to the transmission of knowledge. During the Covid-19 pandemic, with the closure of schools and the deployment of distance teaching, Rai recovered its pivotal role in learning practices through TV programs; in a period marked by an increase of television and audiovisual consumption, Italian public service broadcasting played a distinctive role in diversifying learning opportunities of Italian students and adults.

Journal article

Effect of COVID-19 lockdown on children's eating behaviours: a longitudinal study

AUTHOR(S)
Giuseppina Rosaria Umano; Giulia Rondinelli; Giulio Rivetti (et al.)

Published: July 2022 Journal: Children

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on children’s lifestyle and eating behaviour, resulting in an increase of obesity prevalence. The CEBQ (Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire) is a validate questionnaire that investigates children’s eating behaviour. Knowing the psychological consequences of daily routine disruption during lockdown, we evaluated the changes in eating behaviours in a paediatric cohort before and during the lockdown period through the evaluation of the Italian version of the CEBQ. Children attending the pediatric clinic of the University of Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’ were prospectively enrolled.

Journal article

E-learning during the COVID-19 lockdown: an interview study with primary school music teachers in Italy

AUTHOR(S)
Michele Biasutti; Roberta Antonini Philippe; Andrea Schiavi

Published: July 2022 Journal: International Journal of Music Education

The present article provides an in-depth look at the strategies and practices developed by a cohort of primary school music teachers in Italy to deliver online music lessons during the COVID-19 lockdown. This research used a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews to bring out our participants’ voices and reflections in a very personal manner and examine their perspectives on issues important to their profession and daily work.

Journal article

Families in quarantine for COVID-19 in Italy. Resilience as a buffer of parental distress and problematic children's emotions and behaviors

AUTHOR(S)
E. Pugliese; O. Mosca; D. Paolini (et al.)

Published: July 2022 Journal: Current Psychology

The pandemic of Covid-19 has had a high impact on people’s lives and especially on families. In Italy, in 2020, the several forced closures led families to live indoors to manage anxiety and distress. It was considered appropriate to investigate which protective factors, like parental resilience, can mitigate the negative impact of pandemic-related distress on family life. This study have conducted two online surveys during different national lockdowns for Covid-19. The first survey was conducted immediately after the disruption of the virus and the second one after nine months. It measured parental resilience and distress, anxiety, problematic behaviors, and somatization of their children (as assessed by the parents). The aim was to investigate the protective role of parental resilience in mitigating parental distress and in turn problematic emotional states and behavior of their children.

Journal article

Adolescents' psychoactive substance use during the first COVID-19 lockdown: a cross sectional study in Italy

AUTHOR(S)
Silvia Biagioni; Federica Baldini; Marina Baroni (et al.)

Published: July 2022 Journal: Child & Youth Care Forum

Italy was one of the frst European countries to be affected by Covid-19. Due to the severity of the pandemic, the Italian government imposed a nationwide lockdown which had a great impact on the population, especially adolescents. Distance-learning, moving restrictions and pandemic-related concerns, resulted in a particularly stressful situation. This cross-sectional study aims to analyse substance consumption and its associated factors during the Covid-19 lockdown imposed by the Italian government

Journal article

Impulsivity and depressive brooding in internet addiction: a study with a sample of Italian adolescents during COVID-19 lockdown

AUTHOR(S)
Pierluigi Diotaiuti; Laura Girelli; Stefania Mancone (et al.)

Published: July 2022 Journal: Frontiers in Psychiatry

This contribution presents a study conducted on a sample of Italian adolescents (n = 411) in the period of the first COVID-19 lockdown. The study investigated the role and predictive weight of the impulsivity and depressive brooding variables on Internet addiction, using a hierarchical regression analysis. The participants were administered the Uso-Abuso e Dipendenza da Internet [Internet Use-Abuse and Addiction] (UADI-2), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11), and the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS). In terms of percentage distribution, 28% of the participants were in the full dependency range, while 34.7% demonstrated Internet abuse behavior.

Journal article

School wellbeing and psychological characteristics of online learning in families of children with and without hearing loss during the Covid‐19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Bianca Maria Serena Inguscio; Maria Nicastri; Ilaria Giallini (et al.)

Published: July 2022 Journal: Psychology in the Schools

This study investigated the psychological characteristics of online learning on Italian students with and without hearing loss (HL) and on their parents, who were forced into isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic. An online survey collected information on socio-demographic data and opinions concerning online learning from 61 children (mean age 11; 25 males, 36 females), including 43 with HL and also from their parents; additionally, school wellbeing and anxiety were assessed.

Cite this research | Open access | No. of pages: 27 | Language: English | Topics: Education, Mental Health | Tags: child education, child mental health, COVID-19 response, lockdown, mental stress, physically disabled children, psychological distress, remote learning, school attendance, social distance | Countries: Italy

Journal article

How the COVID-19 pandemic changed adolescents' use of technologies, sense of community, and loneliness: a retrospective perception analysis

AUTHOR(S)
Andrea Guazzini; Andrea Pesce; Fabiana Gino (et al.)

Published: July 2022 Journal: Behavioral Sciences

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought important changes to how we engage in relationships of any kind. To combat the spread of the virus, schools resorted to remote-learning, and teenagers had to rely on various technologies to meet many of the needs that they used to satisfy offline (e.g., social, informational, and recreational/leisure purposes). This article was written to investigate the changes that the students at an Italian high school went through in terms of use of technologies, loneliness, and sense of community, through a survey focusing on their retrospective perceptions. The study was carried out on 917 students. In general, we have found that the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased the perception of loneliness in teenagers (especially in female respondents), as well as their use of technologies for social, informational, and leisure purposes. However, maybe thanks to the opportunities provided by ICTs and remote learning, the sense of community in Italian teenagers was only marginally impacted.

Journal article

The pandemic seen through the eyes of the youngest people: evaluating psychological impact of the early COVID-19 related confinement on children and adolescents through the analysis of drawings and of an e-survey on their parents

AUTHOR(S)
Sonia Di Profio; Sara Uccella; Paola Cimellaro (et al.)

Published: July 2022 Journal: Minerva pediatrica

COVID-19 is having a significant impact on long term children’ and adolescents’ psychological health. This study aimed to evaluate the direct early psychological and behavioural signs related to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and related confinement on children and adolescents. Children and adolescents’ drawings were collected for a limited time window (16th March-10th April 2020) and analyzed. Their parents were asked in the following month to answer a qualitative e-survey on somatic complaints and behavioral changes of the participating children/adolescents.

Cite this research | Open access | Language: English | Topics: Mental Health | Tags: adolescent psychology, adolescent well-being, child mental health, COVID-19 response, lockdown, mental health services, mental stress, psychological distress, social distance | Countries: Italy

Journal article

Effects of socioeconomic status, parental stress, and family support on children's physical and emotional health during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Sara Scrimin; Libera Ylenia Mastromatteo; Ani Hovnanyan (et al.)

Published: July 2022 Journal: Journal of Child and Family Studies

The current study conducts an exploratory study on children’s emotional and physical health in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The direct and interactive effects of parental stress, family socioeconomic status (SES), and family support on child adjustment were investigated. A total of 116 children of varied socioeconomic and their parents were interviewed. Parents with low household income perceived greater distress related to uncertainty and health worries compared to those with higher household income. However, it was among high-SES families that parental distress was associated with child difficulties. At a multivariate level, children’s health was associated with SES, family support, and parental COVID-19 stress. Among families with low household income, when parents perceived low/average COVID-19 stress, family support worked as a protective factor for children’s adjustment. Understanding how COVID-19 relates with children’s emotional and physical health within families with low and high household income may help to inform recommendations for best practices, for example through family support interventions.

Cite this research | Open access | No. of pages: 14 | Language: English | Topics: Mental Health | Tags: child mental health, COVID-19 response, economic and social conditions, lockdown, low income families, mental stress, parent-child relationship, psychological distress, social distance, social inequality | Countries: Italy

Journal article

Family context, identity and internet use: a cross-sectional study in a group of Italian adolescents during COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Monica Pellerone; Stesy Giuseppa Razza; Juan Martinez Torvisco (et al.)

Published: July 2022 Journal: Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal

Literature has demonstrated the adaptive function of identity development and family context toward manifestation of problem behaviors in adolescence. The present research investigates: a) the influence of dysfunctional family dynamics on the Internet use; b) the impact that psychological and physical sensations - following excessive Internet use - can have on the quality of family relationships. The research involved 150 Italian students (65 males and 85 females) aged between 14 and 20 years (M =15.99, S.D = 1.94). The research lasted for 1 school year. Participants completed: an anamnestic questionnaire; the Family Assessment Device (FAD) in order to value the family functioning; and a self-report constructed ad hoc questionnaire, named “Adolescents and Digital Technologies” to measure frequency of use of social networks and Internet, the motivation for the use of social networks, the physical and psychological sensation perceived following their use.

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