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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

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16 - 30 of 215
Interviews about pandemics and protective measures: studying key informants' representation to develop a web-application for fostering children and adolescents' resilience

AUTHOR(S)
Emmanuela Rocca; Roberto Burro; Marco Carradore (et al.)

Published: November 2022   Journal: Psychology, Health & Medicine
COVID-19 pandemic can be defined as a biological disaster whose impact is particularly evident for children and adolescents, vulnerable populations because of their level of cognitive and affective development. For this reason, it is of paramount relevance to develop actions focused on disaster-related prevention and preparedness, including psycho-education. This study aimed at exploring key informants’ representation of the pandemic, also to identify the contents for the first two levels of a psycho-educational web-application for children and adolescents, i.e., PandHEMOT® (Pandemics – Helmet for EMOTions). It involved 25 experts with different professional roles through semi-structured interviews about a variety of aspects related to the pandemic.
How teen–parent relationships changed during the pandemic period. Teenagers talk about thmselves

AUTHOR(S)
Maria Gabriella Pediconi

Published: November 2022   Journal: Prima Educatione
COVID-19 has had an indirect impact on families’ daily lives: the restrictive measures to limit its spread changed family routines and affected the quality of parent-adolescent relationships. Some research examined changes in parenting and parent–child relationship quality, but there is a lack within scientific literature about what is the adolescents’ specific vision about the qualitative changes of their teen–parent relationships during the pandemic period. Teens’ qualitative descriptions of relationships with parents are the focus of the explorative research presented in this paper. Fifty-three Italian adolescents described how their family relationships changed during the lockdown (March–May 2020). Most of them describe an increase in the quality of their relationships with parents and relatives and perceive the lockdown as an occasion to grow and to learn about the complex aspects of life. Instead, those who perceived the lockdown as a traumatic period describe a difficult and conflictual domestic setting during their forced isolation at home.
The experiences of parents and Ccildren during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Tiziana Schirone; Isabella Quadrelli

Published: November 2022   Journal: Prima Educatione

The study, which included a total of 1,122 Italian parents (96.5% female; 3.5% male) of children with an average age of 7.56 years (N = 1,461, SD = 2.03), explores how parents with children (5–11 years old) represent changes in their daily habits as well as their own and children’s experiences in relation to the impact caused by the health emergency. The study also investigates how work, family life, contextual factors and media exposure associated with information regarding COVID-19 have contributed to influencing emotional states and behavioural patterns. The research programme was carried out by an online questionnaire in June 2020. The pandemic was experienced in a variety of ways across four clusters. The highest levels of discomfort can be observed among those parents who have experienced isolation and the fear of contagion with higher levels of anxiety, which have been intensified by the perception of change and the deterioration in working conditions. Parents with higher emotional instability have found a low emotional stability and high depressive tones in their children.


The effect of COVID-19 on sleep quality and mental health: adolescents are more at risk than the elderly

AUTHOR(S)
Luigi De Gennaro; Serena Scarpelli; Maurizio Gorgoni

Published: November 2022   Journal: Brain Sciences

After the appearance of a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) during 2019, the virus has spread with alarming speed and a pandemic quickly developed. The complex consequences of the pandemic phenomenon, i.e., the consequences of the pandemic per se and the countermeasures adopted to control infections and deaths, were associated with a negative impact on sleep quality and, in general, mental health. With a global prevalence of sleep disturbances of approximately 30–40%, as suggested by meta-analytical studies a stable association with psychological distress has been repeatedly reported. In Europe, Italy was the first country to report high rates of infection and deaths, and, as a consequence, the Italian Government declared unprecedented restrictive measures with a total lockdown on 9 March 2020. Not surprisingly, many studies on the effects of the lockdown and/or the pandemic were conducted in Italy , reporting an increase in sleep difficulties associated with the pandemic, particularly during the lockdown periods. Along this vein, the Italian study by Amicucci et al. [10] also investigated the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown during Spring 2020 on sleep quality and mental health. The main merit of this study is a specific focus on two at-risk groups: late adolescents (18–20 years) and the elderly (65–75 years). The authors used a web-based survey and validated questionnaires to assess sleep quality, insomnia, stress, depression, and anxiety. The adolescents reported more insomnia symptoms, worse sleep quality, longer sleep latency, higher daytime dysfunction, a more prevalent disruption of sleep habits (bedtime, get-up time, and nap), and a more negative impact on mental health (higher levels of depression and perceived stress than the elderly). Older participants showed shorter sleep durations, lower habitual sleep efficiency, and greater use of sleep medications.

Feeling supported and engaged during COVID-19: the role of family and colleagues in promoting teachers' well-being

AUTHOR(S)
Annalisa Soncini; Francesca Floris; Maria Cristina Matteucci

Published: November 2022   Journal: Teachers and Teaching
The present study aimed at analysing the impact of teachers’ perceived family and colleague support and work engagement on their well-being and life satisfaction during the first European wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. While implementing distance learning and complying with school closures, 1036 Italian teachers took part in an online survey. A structural equation path model showed that perceiving to be supported by family members directly influenced teachers’ well-being and life satisfaction. The perceived support of colleagues promoted life satisfaction directly and indirectly via increased teachers’ work engagement, whereas teachers’ well-being only indirectly.
Boys do cry: age and gender differences in psycho-physiological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

AUTHOR(S)
Giulia M. Dotti Sani; Francesco Molteni; Simone Sarti (et al.)

Published: November 2022   Journal: Applied Research in Quality of Life
This article contributes to the quality of life literature by investigating gender and age gaps in psycho-physiological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Specifically, it investigates whether women experienced higher levels of distress than men, and if such gap can be explained by a greater negative reaction of women in the experience of a negative COVID-19 related event, such as the illness or death of a relative. Moreover, it explores whether age moderated or amplified the effect of a negative event on distress among women and men. To do so it relies on an ad hoc survey carried out between April 2020 and June 2021 in Italy, the first European country to be hit by the pandemic.
Is playing video games during COVID-19 lockdown related to adolescent well-being? The role of emotional self-efficacy and positive coping

AUTHOR(S)
Emanuela Calandri; Elena Cattelino; Federica Graziano

Published: November 2022   Journal: European Journal of Developmental Psychology
The relationship between adolescents’ use of video games and their well-being is controversial and largely unexplored during the COVID −19 pandemic. This study examined the association between adolescent video game use and well-being during a nationwide lockdown (March-May 2020) and investigated whether this association was mediated by emotional self-efficacy and moderated by positive coping. The study involved 168 Italian adolescents aged 14–19 years (M = 16.6 years, SD = 1.6). Data were collected through an anonymous online questionnaire. Moderated mediation analysis showed that playing video games was indirectly associated with lower health complaints and higher affective well-being by mediating emotional self-efficacy. In addition, positive coping was found to moderate the relationship between video game use and emotional self-efficacy.
Qualitative assessment of the interest in science by high school students who participated in the Italian Masterclasses during, before and after the Covid-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
C. Tarricone; E. Torassa

Published: November 2022   Journal: Proceedings of Science
This study is based on a survey conducted during the International Masterclasses days taken place in almost all the Italian universities during, before, and after the Covid-19 pandemic. More than one thousand students per year mostly enrolled in scientific high schools, performed data analysis using real data collected by high energy physics experiments, about one hundred students per year familiarized with the actual operation technique used for cancer treatment employing x-rays (Particle Therapy). The survey collected the feedback given on a voluntary basis by a sub-sample of the students who participated to the 2018, 2021 (remote), and 2022 editions. Answers show a constant and significant appreciation in the activity, but also a progressive decrease of interest in physics and in technical or scientific professions or research professions in “hard” science matters. In the study presented here, the reasons of interest/disinterest in scientific fields have been investigated.
Cite this research | Open access | Vol.: 414 | No. of pages: 4 | Language: English | Topics: Education | Tags: COVID-19 response, higher education, lockdown, social distance, students | Countries: Italy
Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on children with special needs requiring general anaesthesia for the treatment of dental disease: the experience of the Brescia Children's Hospital, Lombardy, Italy

AUTHOR(S)
K. Tewfik; C. Peta; M. C. De Giuli (et al.)

Published: November 2022   Journal: European Archives of Paediatric Dentistry

Special needs children presenting with dental problems were penalised during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the reduction of clinical activity and the risks of nosocomial infection. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on oral healthcare in paediatric special needs patients. It retrospectively assessed and compared the outpatient clinic activity and dental procedures performed under general anaesthesia in children with special needs at Brescia Children’s Hospital (Italy) in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Any delay between expected waiting time based on assigned priority and surgery was recorded. The efficacy of the protocol adopted to reduce the spread of Covid-19 was evaluated by reporting any infections in patients, parents, and health care providers.

Cite this research | Open access | Issue: 11 | No. of pages: 6 | Language: English | Topics: Health | Tags: child health, COVID-19 response, health services, hospitalization, lockdown, social distance | Countries: Italy
Adolescents with neuropsychiatric disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic: focus on emotional well-being and parental stress

AUTHOR(S)
Francesca Felicia Operto; Costanza Scaffidi Abbate; Francesco Tommaso Piscitelli (et al.)

Published: November 2022   Journal: Healthcare
The aim of our research was to explore emotional/behavioral changes in adolescents with neuropsychiatric conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and parental stress levels through a standardized assessment, comparing the data collected before and during the first months of lockdown. Moreover, an additional goal was to detect a possible relationship between emotional/behavioural symptoms of adolescents and the stress levels of their parents. 178 Italian adolescents aged between 12–18 that were referred to the Child Neuropsychiatry Unit of the University Hospital of Salerno with different neuropsychiatric diagnoses were enrolled. Two standardized questionnaires were provided to all parents for the assessment of parental stress (PSI-Parenting Stress Index-Short Form) and the emotional/behavioral problems of their children (Child Behaviour Check List). The data collected from questionnaires administered during the six months preceding the pandemic, as is our usual clinical practice, were compared to those recorded during the pandemic.
Becoming a mother during the COVID-19 pandemic: the lived experience as told by birthing mothers: a qualitative study

AUTHOR(S)
Tatiana Bolgeo; Francesca Gambalunga; Roberta Di Matteo (et al.)

Published: November 2022   Journal: Journal of Nursing Management

The aim of this study is to explore the lived experience of women who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Experiencing pregnancy during the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbates the risk of the onset of psychological problems. This is a descriptive, single-centre, qualitative study. The enrolment for data collection included childbearing mothers aged 18 years and over between November 2021 and April 2022. The researchers invited them to write about their personal experiences during the isolation period of the first pandemic wave. The descriptive phenomenological analysis of the data was carried out using the method described by Mortari.

Adolescent psychological well-being during the COVID-19 lockdown: the role of leisure activities and online peer communication

AUTHOR(S)
Anna Di Norcia; Chiara Mascaro; Dora Bianch (et al.)

Published: November 2022   Journal: Current Psychology
The present study investigated the effects of leisure activities and online peer relationships on the development of psychological difficulties in adolescents during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. Data were collected in April and May 2020. The parents of 1,020 Italian adolescents aged 14–18 (51.9% girls) completed questionnaires about the experiences and behaviors of their children before and during the lockdown. A moderation regression analysis was applied to test the research hypotheses.
Co-production before, during, and after the first COVID-19 lockdown: the case of developmental services for youth with disabilities

AUTHOR(S)
Monica Carminati; Dario Cavenago; Laura Mariani (et al.)

Published: November 2022   Journal: International Review of Administrative Sciences
Co-production was vital to support public services provision during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the main challenges for service providers is to make co-production sustainable. There are few empirical studies on the sustainability of co-production from a long-term perspective. This study aims to contribute to this topic by exploring the micro-level foundations of co-production persistence through a longitudinal qualitative study in three public service organizations providing developmental services for youth with disabilities. Co-production is analyzed along the service provision process before, during and after the first COVID-19 lockdown, with specific attention on exploring how the conditions for sustainable co-production – mutual commitment, complementarities and institutional arrangements – occur and reinforce one another after an external shock.
Video-feedback approach improves parental compliance to early behavioral interventions in children with autism spectrum disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic: a pilot investigation

AUTHOR(S)
Stefania Aiello; Elisa Leonardi; Antonio Cerasa (et al.)

Published: November 2022   Journal: Children
In the field of autism intervention, a large amount of evidence has demonstrated that parent-mediated interventions are effective in promoting a child’s learning and parent caring skills. Furthermore, remote delivery treatments are feasible and can represent a promising opportunity to reach families at distance with positive results. Recently, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 dramatically disrupted intervention services for autism and forced an immediate reorganization of the territory services toward tele-assisted intervention programs, according to professional and local resources. This study aimed to conduct a retrospective pilot exploratory investigation on parental compliance, participation, and satisfaction in relation to three different telehealth intervention modalities, such as video feedback, live streaming, and psychoeducation, implemented in the context of a public community setting delivering early autism intervention during the COVID-19 emergency. It found that parents who attended video feedback expressed the highest rate of compliance and participation, while parental psychoeducation showed significantly lower compliance and the highest drop-out rate.
Eating disorders: the role of the family in development and maintenance of children's problems in the pandemic period

AUTHOR(S)
Maria Rosaria Juli; Rebecca Juli; Giada Juli (et al.)

Published: October 2022   Journal: Psychiatria Danubina

According to data released by the Ministry of Health in 2021 in Italy about three million young people suffer from eating disorders with onset before the age of 13 and the number tends to be increasing. This work aims to understand if and to what extent the areas of family functioning are related to the way of eating of adolescents in the period of restriction due to COVID-19. In particular, which dimensions of family functioning can be correlated with dysfunctional eating habits. The group that took part in the study was composed of 154 non clinical subjects, of which 124 females, 27 males and 3 non-binary gender subjects. The tests used were the McMaster Family Assessment Device and the Binge Eating Scale, in addition a personal data sheet was used containing the details of the subjects who participated anonymously, recruited at the university of Italy. The data have some limitations, first of all the low number of the sample and the online modality in compiling the tests.

16 - 30 of 215

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